Carmel

It would have been better without the bondage sex scenes, without the foray into the brothel and with a less graphic and sexually explicit description of the love scenes. The author really od'd on sex. In addition, the fact that most of the action takes place in an impoverished foundling home in the middle of a filthy, depraved slum casts a depressing aura on the story. Add to that the despicable behavior of William, Temperance's brother-in-law, in response to his wife's sacrifice, and the result is a depressing story which I can't say I enjoyed reading.

I'm afraid it was fatally flawed because most of my criticisms go to the heart of the plot.

light, subdued, undramatic

The bondage scenes and the sneaky peaking at the brothel for starters

No

Probably, because I typically miss some of the details on my first read. But I wouldn't read it a third time. This is one of Sandra Brown's early novels, and while entertaining, can't compete with her later ones, like Lethal, my favorite.

I think it was when Cooper came crashing through the cabin door and threw a knife into the mountain man's chest.

I liked the one when Rusty opens the front door of her L.A. home and finds Cooper standing there, as well as the ones that immediately followed.

I have mixed emotions about this book. There were number of times when I thought Cooper was unbearably crude and verbally abusive. At the same time, there were moments when Rusty came across as unbelievabaly naive and not too bright. That was especially true in her failure to detect anything wrong with the two mountain men, and her faulting Cooper for killing them. It was also true in her failure to recognize, or at least admit, that her occasional and inadvertent nudity had any effect on Cooper. One begins to wonder what world she's been living in. Even so, some of their conversations were amusing and sometimes even funny. This was kind of a microcosm of the war between the sexes: a very masculine guy irresistibly attracted to a very feminine woman and the unavoidable conflict that engenders.

No.

It would take major surgery.

This is the first of hers I've read.

It's her voice that bothers me - almost whiny. Not compelling, not convincing.

No. There was no character or aspect of the story that warrants a follow-up book.

The book wasn't horrible. It just wasn't very good. Mediiocre describes it best.