wolfie0516 reviewed on
Helpful Score: 1
I liked this book very much. The Viscount was a complex man who battled with himself. He was driven to do his duty to protect his family and their name/honor, and that included generating scandals big enough to eclipse the ones his parents made. He loved both of his parents very much, but they were very unhappy in their marriage and constantly did things that hurt one another and consequently, hurt their children. It was the Viscount's job to "clean up their messes". He was not happy in this role (who would be?), and he desired better for himself. He was jaded, however, and did not believe love in marriage was possible, based on his parent's example. He was drawn to a simple shop girl who had a very optimistic look on life and fought to see past the surface and see deeper and better things in people and, in this case, to see positive meanings in the works of literature she read and the correspondence she had with unknown authors. He wants to capture her hopeful outlook and resilience, I think, and at the same time has worldly plans of making her his mistress or seducing her. He does this with the justification to himself that he is helping to free her from her inhibitions and fears that keep her bound up and from realizing her dreams of travel and experiencing things in life beyond the bookstore where she lives and works for her uncle. When she gave into the seduction, she did it with her eyes wide open and no unrealistic expectations of it being long term. She also didn't give in as a "last opportunity to experience love before submitting to a life of spinsterhood" which is the rationale so many stories use. She willingly accepts the risks of a broken heart, but decides she would rather have that than not have anything from him at all. She decides she loves him and that's enough. She's not helpless or gullible or an unwitting participant in any of this. Max, on the other hand, fights his deeper attraction and connection to her because he doesn't want it to go beyond the convenience of his initial plan, to make her his mistress.
I loved these characters and had a hard time when the book ended. Their struggle with life was very real. Max was a character that really pulled at my heart. I wanted so much for him to break away from the prison he put himself in with his duty and family and disillusionment. I loved watching layers of his character and life be peeled back and exposed. The two characters really did balance each other out very well. This was not a light romance to read, but rather, a journey of overcoming one's "fetters", as the author puts it.
I loved these characters and had a hard time when the book ended. Their struggle with life was very real. Max was a character that really pulled at my heart. I wanted so much for him to break away from the prison he put himself in with his duty and family and disillusionment. I loved watching layers of his character and life be peeled back and exposed. The two characters really did balance each other out very well. This was not a light romance to read, but rather, a journey of overcoming one's "fetters", as the author puts it.
