Malcolm

I've enjoyed many of Linda Howard's books - but not this one. If you like books that feature women who decide they are "in love" with men who
treat them badly - then this is for you.

Even though Gray was fully aware that Faith was completely innocent of her family's bad behavior, he was abusive to her throughout the majority of the book(called her trash, tried to drive her out of town, manipulated the rest of the town to snub her and refuse her service). His rationale for treating her badly is that he wanted to protect his mentally ill mother and sister - so at best, this makes him a lame mama's boy. Of course, Gray wanted to sleep with Faith even when he was trying to drive her out of town - and he expected her to be "on board" for that.

Faith, on the other hand, had many redeaming qualities, but the fact that she decided that she was in love with Gray, regardless of the fact that he NEVER treated her well - made it impossible for me to have any respect for her. As far as I can tell, as a child, Faith decided she loved Gray because of his looks - I can accept that since she was a kid. What I can't understand is why a full grown woman would be "in love" with a man who, for no rational reason, has always treated her badly.

I know my opinion strays from the rest of the reviewers - but I found this book painful to listen to.

I've enjoyed this series so far, but was very surprised, then disappointed when this one ended, completely unresolved. I even checked to see if I'd forgotten to download the 2nd half - but that wasn't the case. I imagine it was meant to be a cliff hanger - but instead it just feels as though the book stops for no reason. Many authors can manage to write series where each book still has a complete story - and this was true for the first two books of the series - but not this one. If this is the pattern for future books in the series - they've lost me as a buyer.