At the beginning I was telling myself this was just soft porn, but then the plot became a story and although I had problems with the heroine who I was labeling a nitwit, I did admire the hero's struggle to overcome his disabilities.
I took a chance on this book, as I had never read or even heard of the author before. I was pleasantly surprised, the story was engaging enough to keep me turning the pages till late at night. The depiction of the seamy side of prostitution was more realistic than most romances touching on this topic. I agree with Regina that the issue of the heroine "faking it" a lot in the beginning because she was desperate for the duke to keep her as his mistress, was never really resolved, and took something away from those love scenes, of which there are many. In fact, if you took out the love scenes the book would probably be half as long. But they are well done, and aside from that it's a good story of two damaged people who heal each other. The hero's extreme persistence in wanting to marry her despite her past was quite touching.
I enjoyed very much the first half of the story where Annie became Devon's mistress and helped him cope with his blindness. But by the time Annie's big secret was revealed, the story became uneven. There were a lot of outside elements taking place in the second half resulting in their relationship taking a back seat. This was a bit of a disappointment because they were an endearing couple, even if it took Devon a while to recognized the signs of falling in love with and deciding to marry his mistress. The biggest issue I had with this story was their lack of discussion into her dislike of sex, her inability to obtain orgasm, and then magically, her love of having sex with the duke. Still a decent read. 3 stars.
