Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

The hero is marginally likable at best. In the beginning of the book the author tries hard to heap charm on him by making him terribly sympathetic ... being flogged, believing his sister raped by the the horrible, grizzly, repulsive antagonist of the book, taking a beating for a strange young girl to spare her embarrassment. Then he gets married to the spunky heroine and out of the blue he beats her. I still can't figure out why this even had to take place. It didn't do anything for the plot, it just made the hero unlikeable. "Hero" Jamie, took a beating for that girl earlier in the book, and the morning after his marriage he said he would lie and say that they hadn't consummated their marriage, all to spare his new wife ... awww, he's sweet ... but then BAM! The beating scene came along and he wouldn't lie about beating her to his clansmen or take a beating for her. He HAD to beat her. I found it repulsive and he lost every bit of charm the author spent so much time trying to convince me he had. Also, until this point I at least liked the spunkiness of the heroine but after the beating she turned into a simpering, soft headed, idiot thinking she actually did deserve it. *gag* She stays miffed a page or two but soon after forgives him because he piles on another tragic story about a childhood beating. [Enough with the beatings already!] So she forgives him completely and they have sex. He's hurting her, she tells him to stop, he says no. Are you kidding me? And again NO bearing on the plot! It just made me not like him! But darn it, my friends loved the book, I was hanging in there and reading the rest! Then the book drags on and on and ON! One incredibly annoying part, again with no bearing on the story, the happy couple are at Jamie's childhood home and a woman wants Master Jamie to hire on a child because his father is beating him. I had to laugh in disbelief! All of a sudden the author is against beatings! How odd! I can't even begin to count how many times Jamie takes a beating or describes his beatings or threatens beatings even when his beatings ARE HIS HAPPY MEMORIES thinking of his dear departed father!!!! Now, she's against beatings! Ugh!!! But to break up the monotony of all his beatings they did burn a witch to keep you awake through the center 400 pages ... of course they had to beat her first. *sigh* And then as a topper we get to the end. It was brutal, horrible, vile, violent, repulsive and quite frankly disturbing. I got the distinct feeling that the author really hated some guy named Jamie and decided to write a book to brutalize him in the worst ways imaginable! Never in my most horrible nightmares could I come up with something so disturbing and I pray that I will never stumble on something like it again!!! And did I mention the heroine kills a wolf with her bare hands somewhere in the dreadfully long middle section? Why you may ask? I have NO IDEA! Again, no bearing on the story that I can tell. The whole thing just has me scratching my head! And don't even get me started on the dialog! :P I'd like to go back in time and stop myself from reading this book!