Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I thought this book had some great ideas, and I really liked the hero and heroine. Unfortunately, every single other character gives new meaning to the term "one-dimensional." The worst was the heroine's mother, who spoils her youngest daughter and seems to hate her eldest, the heroine (the only reason given was because four children had died between them, which made absolutely no sense to me). So when the heroine accuses a boy in the village of hitting her and trying to rape her, her mother tells the heroine she's lying and keeps trying to get the heroine to marry the attempted rapist. This attempted rapist and his little brother (whom we meet torturing a cat) are both portrayed as vile little sociopaths, but when their father stands up at a village meeting and tells everyone how nice and honest they are, everyone in the village nods and agrees. Which, come on! If one of them tortures cats and the other physically assaults women - there is no way their neighbors aren't going to know that. Basically, everyone in the village is incredibly stupid and incredibly mean; they seem to have the thought processes of props, which is what they are. And then there's the heroine's little sister. Originally, we're told she's a spoiled, lazy brat, and she blackmails her sister. But then it seems like the author decided she needed someone to sympathize with the heroine, so she gave the sister a complete character reversal. I tend to expect these things from romance novels - the hero and heroine both have tormented pasts, everyone is just so mean to our heroine (who is the nicest, most beautiful person alive), and the background characters are just there, because we need someone for the heroes to talk to. But this book just made it so much worse. Other books at least attempt to put some thought into why background characters act the way they do and to think they have motivations that don't always revolve around the heroes. But here the author just has the background characters act in whatever way serves the plot. My recommendation: If you can get the book for free, read the first 45 pages or so. The main characters get together, she knows he's a dragon and she's fine with it, and they tell each other they love each other. It's sweet. And I remember thinking - there's another 150 pages, what's going to happen after this? How can there be any conflict or plot? Well, the author seemed to feel the same way, so she manufactured some ridiculous drama (that the heroes could have easily escaped, given that he's a flying dragon) with the villagers.