The second half of this book is pretty good, so if you can get by all the stupidity in the first half it's fun. (If you can't get by the stupidity of the first half, go read Mr. Impossible by Loretta Chase, which is the great version of this story.) She's a sheltered Victorian widow, he's a rogue who seduces women and fights magic until they fall in love and she turns out to be the daughter of his enemy. Nothing about her character in the first half worked for me; she's utterly innocent and trusting yet for some reason willing to betray her family almost instantly. (Seriously, it's like ten lines of dialogue in one scene and she's all, "Yeah, I guess magic IS real and my dad IS evil!") She's supposed to be pure and innocent -- despite being a widow -- who never questions anyone and has never rebelled before, but she totally did when she taught herself Greek. Oh, and after reading a few books as a kid she speaks fluent Greek and Latin and like 100 other languages. That's not how language learning WORKS. If she's never spoken to anyone she certainly can't chat fluently. Ugh. I know that is the kind of thing only I would be hung up on, but it really really bugged me. Anyway they have adventures, the story picks up a lot, they are both terribly brave at each other and it gets quite nice. I like the part where they discus monkeys in hats. I awwed out loud. Otherwise, eh. I wish I'd cared enough to pick up the rest of the series.
Grade: C
Originally posted 2010
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