Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

The description of this novel was interesting and had great potential. I was hoping for an exploration of the emotional depths of a precise and self contained man who has buried his humanity in service to his country. I was also hoping for the slow maturation of a young and optimistic woman as she learns the complexities of human nature and relationships and the ambiguity of morality. What a disappointment! This is one of the most cliché ridden books I have read in a long time. Every single character is no more than one dimensional. The "shocking act of violence" (which should have been the cold assassination of an enemy of the state witnessed inadvertently by his new wife,)was the hero defending himself from an assassin sneaking up on him. He later ends up again killing someone else who is beating a woman and attacking him with a knife. The heroine, with strong 21st century sensibilities, is convinced that he could have defended himself without using excessive force. What a twit! First this story isn't in the 21st century. Second, even today if you are being attacked you have a right to defend yourself. One of my major complaints about any book is when an author writes a historical novel with no historical accuracy. In the time this story takes place no one talked the way these people talk and upper class people didn't behave the way these people behave. There was no battered women's shelter with space for 50 people anywhere. When the heroine meets the wives of the hero's friends she spills her guts in about two minutes about everything, which is not how people behave. They in turn spill theirs. I would hate to be in a room with these women. TMI alert! This was a terrible premise for this disaster of a book. I ended up skipping about a third of it. By the time I was less than half way through I knew the heroine and her maid would be kidnapped, the hero and his friends would rescue them, the maid and the valet would end up together so I just skipped to the last few pages. Believe me, I didn't miss anything except probably some sex scenes and even the ones early in the book were annoying. Everything about this book, everything, is too pat, too easy, too contrived and just plain cartoonish.