What got under my skin was that she didn’t even hesitate or bother to ask him what happened. Yet she draws a knife on him in vengeance? Really?! I can’t and won't overlook that. And this is just mere days after discovering she loves her husband and claiming to trust him. Was this really necessary? This made my blood boil and stressed me the HELL out. Jenny crucifying Royce and refusing to believe his innocence was the final straw that broke the camel's back for me. The knife incident just threw me over the edge and I checked out mentally after that. I mean it wasn't enough for Royce and Jenny to endlessly run into problems and constant misunderstandings and manipulations by outside forces, but the needless death of Jenny's stepbrother William in the last 100 pages used as another source of contention between the two was just too much. I’m not sure if the heroine’s groveling and humbling herself in the VERY last chapter was worth the ridiculous amount of strife and misery the hero, the couple and the readers are put through. Like 100 pages too late honey.I kept questioning was the payoff worth it? Jury’s still out. I mean it was nice and sure Jenny's gesture was sweet but it didn't wow me, I just felt numb. When the couple finally reached their HEA I felt totally indifferent and not really caring. Same grievances I had with Paradise I ran into in here, the amount of anxiety, anger, and frustration I experienced while reading this just colored my opinion of the whole story and unfortunately the characters too. I just wished Judith would have let this couple be for a little while. The number of times and dramatic shifts from hate to love to hate again is just crazy.
The couple do get a few moments of levity but it was all surface because both the reader and characters are fully aware that it will all fall apart very soon. Jenny's surprise revelation that she loves Royce came out of nowhere considering she tried everything to get away from him but the minute she finds out he did in fact want to marry her *gasp* She loves him!!!.Huh? The momentum and pacing is complete crap IMO. For me at least that's what it felt like here. Where's the actual relationship development? The character growth? If you are constantly hurdling obstacles at the couple every few pages there is little room for actual growth and development. You literally are holding your breath waiting for the next explosion and the small baby steps the couple have taken just disintegrate and we are back at square one. Here emotions and feelings swing like a pendulum and are so mercurial that you never know what you are going to get in the next 5 pages. Do both leads HAVE to be strong willed and obsessively obstinate? The endless misunderstandings, arguing, vicious hate just piled on top of each other like an angry agitated ant hill. That's fine since she exceeds at writing tortured conflicted multi-layered characters I can overlook it but I'd like a little more variety is all I'm saying. I've noticed that Judith McNaught likes to stick to a certain formula and plug it into every story no matter the genre. Moving on.This was literally a Tudor version of Paradise, just switch out the names, setting and era. Or one that isn't so ridiculously out of place. So uh.WTH? This was a huge gaffe and made me wish the author picked another more accurate name appropriate to the time period. I googled it and it dates back only to the 20th Century. And by the way, what woman in 1400s Scotland would have a modern English name like Jennifer? I mean.Jennifer? Come on. I kept having to remind myself that Jenny is only a 17 year-old sheltered girl but still, with that age and her attitude.she took a lot of arrogant liberties and quick to believe misassumptions that made me wish someone would slap some sense and humility into her. Oh Moses this girl holds a grudge like a dog with a bone. But the heroine Jennifer Merrick and staggered plot made the whole experience quite torturous. The whole 'falling in love with my captured enemy' was right down my alley of fun. I was not a fan of the slapping incident but he slowly redeemed himself. The hero Royce Westmoreland was everything fierce, aggressive, alpha and intimidating that I enjoy. *sigh* Go figure.This started out promising. I pulled this out of my ‘emergency’ pile in hopes it would pull me out of it but no such luck. I’ve been in a serious book funk that seems to have no end. I promise you I'm NOT doing it on purpose.
I feel like I should put out a disclaimer or apologize to my GR friends for clogging up your feeds with my negative reviews & low ratings as of late. Another McNaught favorite among many that I did not love. About book: * 2.5 I'm-really-getting-tired-of-this stars*This really should have been titled 'Taming of the Shrew- Part II' Too harsh? How about this: Well this sucks.
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