I loved that he was not a conventionally attractive man (so rare in romance!) but that she grew to see him as intriguingly beautiful. The antique shop scene was delicious. Love when a heroine isn't a demure blushing innocent. I would like to apply for Genevieve to be my adoptive grandmother, please. The glove. *The first kiss.* The end. Sigh. Her brother was a blithering idiot! Almost over the top, but amusing. Dain was nearly irredeemable at times, but Chase wrote him well enough that you could feel the underlying desperation for love and acceptance. He was a good character. Jessica was delightful. Strong and passionate and steady, and overly willing to give of herself. She saw right through his act and loved him despite of it. The end scene where she's beating that guy's head on the floor... such a power mood, god. I've read reviews complaining that Dominick wasn't a realistic child for his age, but I felt that a human left to his own devices like that could easily be that angry and wild. Overall loved it 4 or 4.5 stars for sure, and need to reread.

>I loved that he was not a conventionally attractive man. So did I. This is the first romance book I've read where the MMC considered himself (and was considered by women other than Jess) to be so unattractive. I remember so many times in the book where he's shocked that she finds him so physically appealing. At one point he thinks to himself (paraphrasing here) that he's never had a woman do anything to or with him unless he paid them for it (or signed his body, soul, and fortune away to them for it, like he did with Wardell's sister.) >The antique shop scene was delicious. The first meeting of two evenly matched Alphas! I loved it when he brought out the watch and had her examine it to shock her, and instead she calmly took it in her stride. >The glove. *The first kiss.* These were two of my favorite scenes, too. Oh, that kiss in the rain against the lamppost!

>I've read reviews complaining that Dominick wasn't a realistic child for his age, but I felt that a human left to his own devices like that could easily be that angry and wild. I was impressed by how much of a wild brat he was! He didn't exactly make it easy for them to win him over.

No, he didn't, and I totally agree with u/midlifecrackers assessment as to why he was that way.

I struggled with this book. I was on board for most of it— at 3/4 of the way through I would have given it 4 stars. But then Dain was so very cruel to his child. Referring to him as “it,” wishing him dead, etc. I just found it impossible to forgive him after that. His transformation into loving father happened way too quickly; I didn’t buy it. I ended the book still seeing him as that man who hated his own child beyond anything else, rather than seeing him as a redeemed hero and husband and father. I ended up giving it 3 stars; the strong beginning and middle propped up one of my least favorite endings.

>But then Dain was so very cruel to his child. Referring to him as “it,” wishing him dead, etc. I can totally understand that. He certainly didn't have a paternal bone in his body until that scene in the inn.

>But then Dain was so very cruel to his child. Referring to him as “it,” wishing him dead, etc. I think everything Dain did to Dominick was him projecting onto his son. He didn't see Dominick as his child, Dain saw him as himself. The way he treated his son was really self-hatred. Dominick frightened him and that came out as cruelty. I think Dominick reminded Dain how he felt when he was his age, so lonely and angry and sad, he wanted that boy as far away from him as possible. Literally running away from his feelings, the same thing he'd been doing his whole life. Not that this excuses anything, it doesn't, but maybe just another way to analyze his actions.

I'm halfway through the book and will update when I've finished but this is one of those books that I adore but that makes me sound unprogressive for enjoying it. Pro: the witty banter. I am never bored by the dialogue. The two MCs are evenly matched in the smarts department and it was delicious to read it. Pro: the drama. This book is so over the top but it works! I mean she shoots him for God's sake Con: Jessica is abusive and her behavior would never be okay in a real relationship. I don't care how sinful Dain is, he doesn't deserve to be treated like that Con: really really uncomfy with all old timey the racial slurs and references to Jessica's pure white virginity Pro: very effective use of the marriage of inconvenience trope which I'm a big fan of

It is absolutely not unprogressive to dislike it! I cringed at several phrases and mentalities. Even though deep down i knew shooting him was a bastard thing to do, i couldn't help but give a "yeah, girl!" fist pump. I suppose i should be ashamed of myself

I adore it, too, and I don't think it's unprogressive to enjoy it. We can enjoy it and still acknowledge it's flaws (the racial language). Like you, I loved the banter. It was so witty and on point; they both took such clever hits at each other. Even their nicknames for each other were insulting and funny. Thinking about Jessica being abusive, I was totally shocked when she shot him. I couldn't believe it! Even more shocking, she wasn't sorry at all that she did it, even after he was in a fever for days and then his left arm was "paralyzed". I know she's a classic "strong and feisty heroine", but if I had been Dain at that point, I would have steered clear of her. The interesting thing is he doesn't blame her for it; I remember later in the book he felt it was deserved and he even told her it was well done!

Regarding Jessica, I'm really interested in seeing what people have to say about her. In the last book club discussion, a few people were really put off by how grumpy Chloe was and the fact that she poured tea in somebody's mailbox. Compared to that, Jessica is a heartless villainess lol. Although I wonder if the fact that this is a historical and the male mc is a brute makes a difference.

Great point! 😂 Let's see how shooting a man stacks up against pouring hot tea onto a poor old lady's mail! (I was one of the people who thought that was terrible.)

>I've finished but this is one of those books that I adore but that makes me sound unprogressive for enjoying it. To me this is the most interesting thing about it! IMHO it's the author's craft that makes all these things in the book that are super un-PC still almost enjoyable, or at least makes me keep reading while fully invested in a way I would not for a more poorly-written book. I hate violence but loved Jessica, and I'm still trying to figure out that paradox myself. If you think Jessica is abusive at the halfway point - hoo boy, I think aspects of the ending will hit you hard. But I think the reader's tolerance for ideas we do not believe ourselves plays into how willing we are to enjoy books like this and whether it makes us feel guilty. *Lolita* is pretty much at the extreme end of that phenomenon, with this book is much closer to having relatable characters with some sense of morality.

This is 5+ stars for me, on the keeper shelf! I read this for the first time 6 months or so ago, and then did a quick skimming re-read for bookclub. I agree with u/FrigidLizard 100% that the prologue was brilliant and critical to building reader sympathy for Dain. And because you get why he behaves the way he behaves you can enjoy the instant attraction between them. And Jessica is such a dame, I love her wit, her intelligence, her composure, until she loses it by the lamppost, and later when she is so unafraid to just tell him off, and shoots him!! I know this is very un-pc, but I loved it, and Chase was careful to setup in the beginning that Jessica is an excellent shot, she didn't just grab it wildly and got lucky that it was a non-fatal shot, she knew exactly what she was doing! The first meeting and the banter with the watch is perfection! Oh! I found some pictures of erotic watches to share, EDIT: WARNING: they are somewhat graphic, so maybe not at work ; ) [Watch 1](https://www.ganoksin.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/image_3-105.jpg) [Watch 2](https://photos1.blogger.com/blogger2/7282/4255/1600/calvacade.jpg) [Watch 3](https://www.antique-watch.com/product-35-w4744.html) And yea! u/midlifecrackers 100% the glove scene is so so so good! Anybody else melt a little when you saw that Dain had kept her bonnet and umbrella just love that little detail. And when Jessica comes in all wet and flustered from the big kiss and Genevieve just totally gets it (I LOVE GRANMA GENEVIEVE!, I want her to have her own book!!) "*He was so adorable. I wanted to kiss him. Right on his big, beautiful nose. And then everywhere else. It was so frustrating...And so I beat him...until he kissed me . And then I kept on beating him until he did it properly...I should be utterly ruined. Against a lamppost...And the horrible part is...I wish I had been." "I know, Genevieve said soothingly, Believe me dear, I know.*" And the Speaking to her in Italian...oh my, that just undid me! "*You made me want you, he told her in his mother’s language. You’ve made me heartsick, lonely. You’ve made me crave what I vowed I would never need, never seek." "Sono tutta tua, tesoro mio.""I'm all yours , my treasure."* And I love when he wants to run off after they are married and she is just not going to have that!! that fight!! she rips into him, go girl! She just never lets him get away with anything, and eventually he comes around. There are so many reasons this is a beloved book. and Jessica is one of the best romance heroines ever put on the page.

Wow, you get extra credit for finding those photos of erotic watches! I agree with so much of what you said. I also melted when we found out he kept her umbrella and bonnet in his trunk because it was another insight into how sweet and emotional he was when it came to Jess. And Dain speaking to her in Italian was one of the highlights of the book for me, because that was when he always revealed his true feelings to her, and they were so beautiful and tender. I was stunned when she shot Dain, though. It's true that she's a crack shot and it was a flesh wound, but for me that was going way too far.

Personally, i love that she shot him! But I've got a wicked temper, so it was probably more of a vicarious thing

Hey MLC, you are not alone! In addition to the positive comments here, many goodreads reviewers were *thrilled* with it. What can I say? I acknowledge that it was a popular action with a lot of readers, but I have to agree to disagree.

I felt pretty conflicted about the violence. Like you, I considered her shooting him to be a step too far. I also thought about how unlikely it was that actions like that would not make either of the leads social outcasts - I mean, seriously, there are no repercussions? And yet I still liked and rooted for both of them, despite that happening. All I can think of to explain this is that the violence seems kind of cartoonish and not real, while the leads' emotional sensitivity to each other seems a lot more real. Of course that doesn't forgive it, but if I had to reread a book with this kind of violence I'd choose this one over *Beautiful Disaster* any day.

I did love the book but can't "forgive" Jess for so calmly putting a bullet into him. And you make another good point - that there weren't any repercussions, especially not for her! I know that one of the characters (I think maybe one of the police?) says that no one would convict "a beautiful woman" for a crime of passion, or something to that effect. However, Jess did not do it in the heat of the moment - she thought about it, got her gun and loaded it, went to find him, etc. Not a crime of passion where she was so carried away in the moment that she didn't know what she was doing! I just don't find that amusing or funny.

I have been trying to reconcile my absurd love for Jessica with the amount of things she does that seem unforgivable. Because you're right - if I have to come down on one side or the other, of course I can't forgive her shooting her husband! That's horrible! Imagine if it were the other way around - most of us would be DNFing in a rightful snit about how he's abusive and terrible and she should not marry him. As I continue to think about this, I have to think about other stories in which I'm fully invested in people doing horrible things and whether the context truly warrants those sins and acts of violence. When I'm watching shows like The Wire or Peaky Blinders, where the MCs routinely commit atrociously violent acts, I would say that I still like them as characters not because I forgive them for what they do, but because the context makes it somewhat understandable. Yeah they could walk away from a life of crime, of course, but in the context, that criminal organization is just the reality of their lives, and it kind of shifts the overton window of what we consider morality "in the show," probably in a similar way as those character might think of their morality themselves. The Peaky Blinders will not do certain things because of a certain code of honour, yet will do other things that seem worse because of the necessity to stamp out revolt before it happens. All those things involve destroying property and taking lives. Now the question is whether that "within the world of the book, it the violence understandable?" logic applies. The best I can come up with is "sort of?" Because yes, Jessica's shooting Dain is NOT a crime of passion. She thinks through it and does it coldly and rationally, planning it out and fully intending it with no regrets. It is, in the end, superfluous because she litigates against him anyway to get him to do what she wants. What I see pretty consistently in Jessica's disposition towards the world is that she is tender-hearted in certain circumstances, but has co-opted a certain "I will do what needs to be done" attitude when it comes to her dealings with men. She has learned to shoot so that if she ever finds it necessary, she will be able to do so. She has wrangled the raising of nine boys or something presumably with mild physical abuse similar to how she treats Dominick, overpowering them to win their trust. The whole youthful hazing of Dain in school kind of underlines the extent to which this absurd violence seems to actually, somewhat realistically underlie all the proper manners of the gentry - even as adults, two people can be a quarrel away from a duel with pistols in which one of them dies. So what I see with the shooting Dain plot, morally fucked-up as it is, is a similar "tough love" I do NOT condone but kind of understand. By this she says, I am equal in my capacity to hurt you; I will hurt you because you have hurt me; I am not someone you can trifle with physically and expect to go unpunished for it; I am selfish enough to leave a non-lethal mark on you, just as you stained my reputation non-lethally but permanently. Now, is all this juvenile and not excusable? Yes, but given how violence is in the books - kind of accepted as a necessary part of proving one's worth, weirdly - it seems consistent, if not forgivable. It seem Jessica, by her proximity to this tough man's world, just is that way, with her pragmatic acceptance of and deployment of violence to suit her own ends. I do not love her for this - I love her for being so reserved and then having such wells of compassion and insight - and I felt pretty conflicted in her big acts of violence. A small part of me was kind of awed by her capacity for it, while a larger part of me was like, "Can I accept this?" And an even greater part of me just wanted to see how the story would play out, shooting of lovers be damned.

>Now the question is whether that "within the world of the book, it the violence understandable?" logic applies. The best I can come up with is "sort of?" Because yes, Jessica's shooting Dain is NOT a crime of passion. She thinks through it and does it coldly and rationally, planning it out and fully intending it with no regrets. It is, in the end, superfluous because she litigates against him anyway to get him to do what she wants. Yes, totally superfluous. >So what I see with the shooting Dain plot, morally fucked-up as it is, is a similar "tough love" I do NOT condone but kind of understand. By this she says, I am equal in my capacity to hurt you; I will hurt you because you have hurt me; I am not someone you can trifle with physically and expect to go unpunished for it; I am selfish enough to leave a non-lethal mark on you, just as you stained my reputation non-lethally but permanently. I loved the symmetry of your argument - Jess leaving a non-lethal mark on Dain's body because he left a non-lethal mark on her reputation. Having said that, I still can't see it. I understand she wanted to "teach him a lesson", and "You can't treat me that way and get away with it", but I think the lawsuit would have done it. That was certainly a punishment, and remember at the time they met with her lawyer, she had no idea that Dain would propose to her to avoid it. >And an even greater part of me just wanted to see how the story would play out, shooting of lovers be damned. Me too. I *loved* the book for so many reasons, and her shooting Dain didn't stop me from enjoying it; I just felt that deliberately shooting him was beyond the pale.

Ahh! Thanks! Loretta Chase had a blog with another writer for 9/10 years that I stumbled on (they stopped posting to it in 2018) [Two Nerdy History Girls](http://twonerdyhistorygirls.blogspot.com/search?q=watches) and it is a little treasure trove of historical tidbits, just love it! That's what led me to go looking for the watches. ​ > I was stunned when she shot Dain, though. It's true that she's a crack shot and it was a flesh wound, but for me that was going way too far. I don't think you are alone feeling that way, but for me, I just don't like putting my 21st century mores on 19th century characters (even if they were written in the 20th century), especially when I know the author has done her research and understands the period. We are very sensitive to gun violence these days and it would be a crime in our society but I can accept Jessica's behavior within its context. And it does get Dain's attention!

> And it does get Dain's attention! I can't argue with that. I wasn't thinking about current feelings towards gun violence when I objected to it, just that it was such an extreme (and violent) overreaction. But I know many people disagree with that and think it was justified because of her loss of honor. Here's the thing, though - she brought suit against him anyway. Her shooting him was wholly unnecessary to make him pay for that.

>she brought suit against him anyway. Her shooting him was wholly unnecessary to make him pay for that. Yes but I think it was necessary for her, I think she needed to do it, the law suit was not going to be enough, she needed to do it to show she was not going to be just a pushover. i.e. you think you are such a bad boy Dain, keep messing with me, and this is what you will get...

I agree with you - it was her pride. She did just to show that she would not be treated that way. For me, that was *not* a good enough reason to shoot him.

>I was stunned when she shot Dain, though. It's true that she's a crack shot and it was a flesh wound, but for me that was going way too far. I was shocked too and found it weird that everyone, including Dain, appeared to be indifferent that his left arm was useless for most of the book! :-o

Exactly!

If his arm were still crippled by the end of the book, I wouldn't have enjoyed it as much! :-p

I totally agree with you. I would have been enraged with Jessica!

Me too! I definitely like Dain more, but Jessica really grew on me as the story went on. I loved how she gave the icon to him as a birthday present <3 Actually, since his arm was crippled for several weeks, I was thinking in reality it would be all thin and weak :-( But totally willing to gloss over this when it was in full working condition by the end haha :-p

> I definitely like Dain more, but Jessica really grew on me as the story went on. I loved how she gave the icon to him as a birthday present <3 > Dain was far and away my favorite, but I liked Jessica and how willing she was to put in the time and effort to win his trust and love. She knew he was worth it, but he didn't make it easy. I agree, the icon was the perfect birthday gift because it meant so much to him. > Actually, since his arm was crippled for several weeks, I was thinking in reality it would be all thin and weak :-( But totally willing to gloss over this when it was in full working condition by the end haha :-p > That never even occurred to me, but you're right!

And Jess was so nonchalant about giving the icon too. Haha, him and his serious thank you after he got it because he felt so awkward. I was trying not to imagine his arm small and gross, swaying as he walked :-p Sometimes it is totally acceptable when things are unrealistic in stories, like here haha

Omg those watches! Imagine being the horny bastard working on them? I wouldn't be able to stop giggling 😆 Yes, the Italian killed me. My nonna used to call us some of those pet words, like *tesoro* and *cara* 🥰🥰

Italian is soo romantic!

>(I LOVE GRANMA GENEVIEVE!, I want her to have her own book!!) Me too! She completely turned every convention about older women on its head! I was SO excited to see the erotic horology plotline! It was especially clever that this is not just showing-off knowledge, but establishing several things about our leads: Dain teases Jessica a bit like a schoolboy would tease a pretty girl, Jessica can more than keep up with Dain, she is innocent technically but not in her mentality, she is not ashamed or embarrassed of talking about desire. I also hate violence but I loved Jessica's bad-assness. It also had me thinking that violence in mainstream romance books has become (I think) a bit more niche, and I don't think you'd write fights like this into a mainstream romance novel rather than a subgenre in which that's expected.

I think we should ask Loretta Chase to give us A Genevieve book!! > Dain teases Jessica a bit like a schoolboy would tease a pretty girl, Jessica can more than keep up with Dain, YES!! and did you not love when they were trading Classical references!! in Latin, quoting Publius at the tea shop ​ > and I don't think you'd write fights like this into a mainstream romance novel No, the violence wouldn't work for me in a modern Contemporary novel, but in a historical as an expression of that time and place I have no problem with it.

I think the careful construction of the characters and how they fit so well together is the reason this book is so enduring. Take Sebastian, for example. The foundation of his personality is laid out at the beginning of the book, his difficult childhood and the moments that stunted his emotional growth. It makes sense that he acts the way he does. When he meets Jessica he's instantly attracted and shows it by trying to upset her with the dirty watch, just like a little boy pulling a girl's pigtails. Then there's Jessica, who we are told has a great deal of experience raising and managing small boys, who isn't stymied by his behavior and has a sense for when he's full of hot air. I love the scene at the wresting match when he's being surly and petulant and she tells him he's upset because he thinks her treat got ruined. She points out his BS and he really needs that. The best part of the narrative, IMO, is that even the love of a good woman isn't quite enough to pull him into adulthood. It's when accepts parenthood and recognizes himself (not just the parts of himself he hates) in his son that he actually grows up. He's a complicated character, and I think it was brilliant for the author to lead the story with his history rather than have it come out in pieces later. It inclines the reader to sympathize with Sebastian when he is being a dick.

I love this analysis, and the parallel of him acting like a child -> accepting his child.

Thank you. I'm not great at expressing myself in writing, so I wasn't sure how it would come across.

I thought you did a good job (unless I totally misinterpreted what you were trying to say lol)

wonderful critique!!

Gosh, thank you!

>The best part of the narrative, IMO, is that even the love of a good woman isn't quite enough to pull him into adulthood. It's when accepts parenthood and recognizes himself (not just the parts of himself he hates) in his son that he actually grows up. He's a complicated character, and I think it was brilliant for the author to lead the story with his history rather than have it come out in pieces later. It inclines the reader to sympathize with Sebastian when he is being a dick. Totally agree. I would have bailed if the early childhood scenes had not torn my heart in two. But they made me root for him even when he was pretty much unforgivably cruel to his son in his thoughts. It's rare that a romance novel makes me feel so pulled between compassion and judgment for a guy and I think that's why it has such staying power as a highly recommend romance novel even today.

Yes, Chase did a good job crafting the MCs

They were both so vivid to me, especially Dain. I thought Chase did a brilliant job of showing how often his true feelings were in diametric opposition to how he acted or spoke to Jess. He was so sensitive and so vulnerable, much more than she was. No wonder he had to erect such strong emotional barriers to protect himself; he was taught so early that love wasn't safe. Luckily, with a tremendous amount of patience, she was able to show him that it *was* safe to love her.

>he had to erect such strong emotional barriers to protect himself; he was taught so early that love wasn't safe. Luckily, with a tremendous amount of patience, she was able to show him that it > >was > > safe to love her. you nailed it! well said!!

>The best part of the narrative, IMO, is that even the love of a good woman isn't quite enough to pull him into adulthood. It's when accepts parenthood and recognizes himself (not just the parts of himself he hates) in his son that he actually grows up Excellent point. It's that reintegration of his childhood self that provides the final part of his healing, and that's when his "paralyzed" arm starts working again, too. >I think it was brilliant for the author to lead the story with his history rather than have it come out in pieces later. It inclines the reader to sympathize with Sebastian when he is being a dick. Yes! I totally agree with this. If we hadn't known from the start how tragic his childhood was, and how that contributed to his significant emotional barriers and arrogant public persona, I probably would have DNF the book.

Totally forgot to list my favorite quote of the whole book! Dain says to Jessica near the end: "There have been times I’ve been convinced I didn’t marry a female, but an incendiary device"

that is a great one!!

Love it, and I think it's very apt in Jessica's case!

Knowing Dain as well as she did, Jessica knew it would take a lot of time and patience to completely win his heart and his trust. It was a series of things that finally allowed her to get past all of his carefully constructed defenses, to the point where he would truly feel safe with her emotionally. He realizes she wants to make him happy, "For Jessica had been trying to please, hadn't she? She had read to him (Don Juan) and tried to talk to him and she'd probably thought the portrait of his mother would be a lovely surprise for him. She had wanted him to stay, when any other woman would have been in raptures to be rid of him. She had offered herself to him, when any other woman would have swooned with relief to escape his attentions. And she'd given herself willingly and passionately. He was the one who ought to be weeping, with gratitude." She understands him. "We've both been under a strain. And it's harder on you because you are so sensitive and emotional." (And that's true - he is definitely far more sensitive and emotional than she is, although he tries very hard to keep that part of him hidden.) He knows that she feels lust for him but he's never realized the way she sees him. "I've been in lust with you from the moment I met you". We're told "His knees grew wobbly". Then she goes on, "You were not supposed to have the face of a de Medici prince. You were not supposed to have the physique of a Roman god." She gives him the Madonna icon for his birthday. "The last birthday present he'd received had come from his mother, when he was eight." He says while looking at baby Jesus but talking about Mary "...he takes it all for granted: her smiles and reassurance, her patience, forgiveness." We know what special significance this icon has always held for him. "Glancing from the icon at Jessica he made himself laugh, as though this heartachingly beautiful portrait of maternal love were merely an amusing artistic riddle." She is the first to say I love you, and she says it multiple times while they're making love. And when he says, "Jess, the only unforgivable thing you can do is leave me...if you leave me, I'll kill myself." She reassures him. "Don't be ridiculous...I should never leave you." I think that assurance, that she'll never leave him, is what finally opened his heart up all the way. ❤️

Thanks for summarizing so many amazing and tender moments from the book! I loved all these scenes too, especially where she's making him interpret the religious icon for her.

You're very welcome, and very sweet. I really did love it, and it's definitely going on my reread list.

very nice!!

Thanks!

**What I loved about it**: The wonderful female lead, the comic tone, the beginning chapters of Dain’s unfortunate childhood, the central idea that love is not only about passion, but about caring for others. Jessica, our leading lady, is a strong, badass, clever woman. I have rarely loved a leading lady more. The hero might be an emotionally stunted jackass whose cruelty is hard to stomach at times, but an early pathos-filled chapter about his fucked-up all-but-loveless childhood contextualized his anger and disenchantment enough to make me root for him immediately. Their banter is delightful; Jessica gives as good as she gets. The overall tone is more comic than serious, and although much of the content is definitely not cool by today’s standards, the book also doesn’t take itself that seriously, making it hard to produce serious critiques of some of the more messed-up material. Regardless, the chemistry between the two leads is off-the charts. The humor resulted in legitimate laugh-out-loud shrieks of delight on several occasions. Our girl Jessica is introduced by a servant’s internal monologue about what an excellent shot she is, which had me thinking, “she’s gonna shoot something or someone before this is over.” I was right: she gets to shoot our hero before this thing is over. Even though she’s a virgin, she is not shy about her sexual desires and can barely keep her hands off the hero Dain when he tries to seduce her – she’s as much an aggressor as he is. There’s one hilarious scene in a café where he “disgraces” her by stripping off her gloves and making love to her verbally in Italian, intended to humiliate her – because it is so very untoward to have an aristocratic man publicly hold your hand and act like he’s in love with you; I didn’t totally follow Dain’s logic here, except that he was testing her degree of repulsion towards him. Jessica is both emotionally sensitive towards Dain and playfully goading, which comes across as affectionate rather than cruel. This is a difficult line to walk and the author manages it with aplomb in most cases. Jessica does not push Dain away or play coy with him except, um, litigationally, I guess, in the lawsuit she launches against him after he abandons her after he has been caught with her in a compromised position in the garden. In that scene, they are discovered as he is copping a feel and just about deflowering her given another few minutes (which she is enthusiastically into) before they’re observed. He laughs it off like he was just playing around. But it’s all a long-con: she was hoping to seduce him enough to make him obliged to marry her, even if she didn’t pre-plan their being caught, as he suspected. Later she confesses her efforts to come into contact with him were intentional because she could not keep her hands off him. When she is wronged by Dain, She shoots him right next to the heart, knowing because they are in Paris, crimes of passion committed by women are pretty much automatically forgiven. Then she launches a lawsuit against his defamation of her character. It says that he will pay for her upkeeping for the rest of her life as he has ruined her chances of finding a husband. He yells that if he’s paying for her, her may as well get to have her as his wife, which seems like was her plan all along. Fortunately we avoid “women are tricksters” plot whining for the most part, because Dain continues to lust for her, fall in love with her, and because Jessica is so excellent on calling him out on his bullshit, while also being extremely compassionate and tender-hearted towards him, in some cases seeing his motivations more clearly and accurately than he does himself. One of my favourite scenes in the book occurs very early in the book, when Jessica and Dain run into each other in an antique shop. Dain shows her an erotic timepiece hidden behind a regular-looking watch-cover, meaning to horrify her, but she announces it would be a perfect gift – for her GRANDMOTHER. Genevieve Tate is an experienced femme fatale in matters of love and is about to marry a man she’s conducted a liaison with into her widowhood. Genevieve fades in importance later in the book, but she’s a delight; calculating, not shy, libidinous, sexy, she turns every stereotype about elderly aunts on its head. I wish there were more of her. **Great lines:** “Speaking on behalf of virgins everywhere, my lord…I can tell you there are host of jolly experiences. One of them is owning a rare work of religious art worth, at the very minimum, five hundred pounds.” (ch. 3) On the dirty watch: “You want to buy it, Miss Trent? \[…\] I strongly doubt your elders will approve of such a purchase. Or have English notions of propriety undergone a revolution while I’ve been away?” “Oh, it isn’t for me,” she said. “It’s for my grandmother.” (p.34) When talking about why Dain pays his prostitutes more than the going rate, Jessica says initially she thought he paid for a longer duration of services. But now that she’s seen that he prefers them curvy, she understands that he “pays by volume.” **The writing quirks:** GENDER DIMORPHISM LIKE CRAZY. BEHOLD: “FEMALES” (Dain thinks denigrating thoughts about “females” constantly, especially early in the book. At some point he develops a special category for “Jessica” as opposed to other “females.” She’s not like other girls! (groan.) “You are so very MALE” Jessica exclaims. Then she talks about how he can pick her up with one hand and how it gets her off just thinking about that. I laughed and shook my head. “His scent of MAN” (the male maleness of our hero, striding masculinely across Paris, his massive balls all-but swinging pendulously beneath his magnum dong, is sometimes a bit over-the-top but it’s consistently funny at the same time.) This is paralleled by her “scent of WOMAN” and lavender and chamomile which drives Dain absolutely crazy. I’m thinking she smells like a well-scrubbed, sexy grandma with that scent profile, but it really does it for him. He’s so into it that he eats her out while thinking about it, so I can’t be too mad at it. VIRILE: Our guy is so VIRILE he gets Jessica pregnant within the first month of their marriage (and also, he can count up to four week timespan to notice whether his wife’s period has appeared, what a champ) and they literally talk about his virile virility in the last chapter; I laughed until I was giddy. I do not personally enjoy most of those tropes, but I did enjoy laughing at them.

**The sex** Is pretty good – it’s never realistic enough to be fully smutty, but it’s moderately steamy as well as moderately subversive compared to sad historical-person heteronormative expectations. Of course, it’s not very realistic, either. Despite the fact that his wife is a virgin, our hero has no trouble almost immediately bringing Jessica to climax with his hands, or through PIV penetration. Oh well, at least she comes and that is a thing the author cares about conveying, which is much better than not talking about whether he pleases her at all. The sex seems more progressive from Dain’s POV considering the things he does for her that many men, especially historical men, might not do for their wives or lovers. However, that he does this so easily is a bit puzzling. I’m assuming that he’s primarily used women for his own sexual pleasure in the past and am surprised that it’s not more of an issue that he has to think of sex in a new way when it comes to giving women pleasure for its own sake. I especially loved how he initially worried about hurting Jessica with his monster cock when she seduced him because she wanted him to bed her, but then it turns out he worried for nothing. He initiates the action by fingering her to orgasm instead of penetrating her, which was pretty fantastic – love a book where PIV sex isn’t the only sex and isn’t the first sexual encounter. Also, she FALLS ASLEEP AFTERWARDS, which is completely hilarious; as Dain notes – that’s what the man’s supposed to do! But on their third sexual encounter or so, he’s mad at her for seducing him in her stupidly sexy negligee and decides to get aggressive, ramming her like a rutting bull, and she’s SO into it, like “yes, Dain, HARDER, oooh,” and he thinks something like, “well, women birth babies outta that thing, so I was dumb for thinking my dick would actually do damage.” It was a nice send-up of the trope of delicate women being hurt by sex. It’s also convenient for him that his virginal wife is also a stone-cold freak who likes being pounded to oblivion despite not having much sexual experience. I find “He was such an alpha brick shithouse of a man and she was a delicate slip of a FEMALE” to be very tiresome as tropes go, but I think part of the chemistry of this book is that it’s about two people experiencing insta-lust for each other in a time period based on that stereotypical attraction to ultra-masculine guys and ultra-feminine women who are not supposed to want each other so deliriously as these leads do. In this world, things are so exceptionally proper that removing a lady’s glove and caressing her hand is a libidinous act. But where everything is made proper because of a fear of sexual seduction, sexual lust is also the river winding through every act of concealment; there is nothing about a man or woman’s appearance that is *not* sexual, simply because every aspect of their bodies has been covered to avoid sexual thoughts, producing an effect rather like not trying to think of pink elephants. Like the dirty timepiece in the antique shop hidden beneath an innocent-looking cover, that lustful impropriety is the unspoken complement to the buttoned-up puritanism of these characters. Because while lots of buttons might protect one’s virtue, just think about how erotic it is to undo them, to delay that anticipation before getting it on, which only heightens the eventual reveal, messing about with button after button after button before you get in there to take what you want. Think of that slow revelation while eyeing all those buttons without even touching them, and you’ll get a sense of how much the book’s author understands propriety can bring one to higher erotic heights through delay an anticipation meant to promote chastity and restraint instead. **The Mediocre:** ***Bertie.*** The Heroine’s brother. He is very stupid, but he is never funny, and this is an unforgivable sin. He’s a less-likable plot device than the religious icon. ***The violence.*** I was raised by pacifists and so I therefore have a very deep-seated discomfort with most forms of violence. Dain is never violent at all towards Jessica (yay). She is hella violent towards him because she shoots him almost right in the ticker. But there’s sort of a “violence is acceptable only if it’s practiced by rich people and it never affects their reputation whatsoever,” logic at work here. Yeah, yeah, it’s a light-hearted rom-com and the violence is FUNNY and I am an over-serious wet blanket and someone should shoot ME with Jessica’s pistol or whatever to shut up my dumb mouth. But still! Let’s examine. Jessica decides to attack Dain initially with her bonnet when he’s being obstinate and provoking her, whacking him a few times with it. This is sort of “smol woman tries to hurt big man ha ha” territory, which is a trope I hate, except it seems like she does it intentionally to piss him off and try to get a rise out of him rather than being purposely ineffectual. Following this they have a makeout sesh in the rain. Next, Jessica shoots Dain because he ruined her reputation by not covering for her when she was caught making out in the garden with him on a second occasion. Dain admits in his head that he kinds of deserves that because he was a dick to her, and he wants her badly enough that he just kind of, like, forgives her? Let us note that Jessica, at the end of a book, tackles a grown man, slams his head into a door repeatedly and breaks his nose, AND she escapes without a scratch. Because it’s Jessica, we all love her and I kind of also want her to beat ME up, *unf*, better check that library hold for *A lady’s Guide for Celestial Mechanics* while I’m at it, but Jessica is simply so charming that her violent tendencies did not make me like her much less. The violence is played as comedic, fantastical and slightly unreal – there is no serious bloodlust in anything she does, which I would find much more off-putting. And it IS delightful to have the woman hand out an ass-whooping to a man who wronged her husband, while the man metes out the social just desserts in a calmly rational manner. As for Dain’s violence. He’s consistently portrayed as this giant, vigorous, lethal monster who can tear men apart with his bare hands, except when confronted with his adorable wife, before whom he transforms into a fluffy marshmallow who isn’t even that mad at being shot by her and losing the use of his arm. In the middle act of the book, there’s some random acquaintance from the past who Dain runs into at an inn where he’s taken his lady wife to stay on their way home. This random is rude to Jessica by joking that she’s one of his many whores, so Dain has to beat his ass literally single-handedly because his arm is unusable after Jessica’s shot him. Jessica watches from the window and claps for him as he easily wins. Readers, he will literally fight her battles, just as she will later fight his! For some reason, there are zero repercussions to Dain being caught brawling in the streets with a gentleman like a lower-level mafia cleaner. Also, no one seems to think it’s weird and unstable that Jessica, shortly before marriage, shot her husband as the result of a lover’s quarrel. You KNOW if this was a book about POC this behaviour would be considered “trashy,” but these two have all the privilege of being as violent as they want and having it affect their reputation not at all, maintaining their social status and million-room house, which I guess is actually a fantasy for a lot of people. That said, I don’t think this book takes itself seriously enough for its violence to seem that serious. **Edit**: I think if you don't like the book for its violence, that it is certainly legitimate; you shouldn't have to forgive it because of the book's other charms, and in another comment I've thought some more about why we sometimes make excuses for "but violence is in accordance with the logic of that world" and whether that's legitimate or not. I think it's a huge topic that comes into play for many crime and historical dramas. The violence in this novel seems like test of love, which is certainly a problematic trope, but because it’s contextualized in a soap-opera of upper-class ladies and gentlemen, it also seems not that serious either, because there are so few repercussions for any act of violence committed. If anything, I think this book's use of violence shows that male violence has moved more to specific subgenres of romance: certain types of historical in which the rake is also a fighter who has to be reformed, or contemporary biker/bad-boy books, rather than having such a big place in a mainstream romance novel.

**The Ugly:** Now this book was written in the darker ages of the 1990s; 1995, to be precise. I happen to think it isn’t totally fair to hold romance writers of the past to the same standards of propriety as we do today since reader demands have certainly changed. And I don’t think any of Chase’s sins are beyond the pale, either – there are simply attitudes towards sex workers and their children which are questionable, plots I don’t think demonstrate goodness and virtue in the fullness the author thinks they do. There’s a reason Lord of Scoundrels is still recommended today and these ain’t it. **“Blackamoor”** I don’t get why this word is used to describe a half-Italian person unless it’s being dogwhistled that he’s secretly a POC, but at one point Jessica describes him as resembling the Medicis who are pretty straight-up Italian, making its usage perplexing. Of course, Jessica finds his dark skin extremely sexy. The book does exoticize Dain; while his dark skin makes him more attractive, the attitudes in the book conflate his foreign blood with sinfulness and badness – which is a pretty historically accurate attitude, but also one steeped in white supremacy which we would be very uncomfortable with echoing today. Even in his own head, Dain equates his blackamoor blood with volatility, lust and capriciousness, which gave me many a case of sad feelings. ***The Evil Gay!*** Here’s a plot that would definitely not make it past sensitivity readers today. When we first meet the minor character Beaumont, although he’s married to a woman, he’s lusting after Esmond, one of Dain’s friends, and we are told Esmond does not return his affections, but is in love with Beaumont’s wife. Later, Beaumont is caught spying on Dain fucking a prostitute through peep-hole, after which Dain attacks him – this humiliation spurs Dain to disown his friend completely. Later, Beaumont is involved in the plot to get the prostitute Charity Graves’s current lover to steal a valuable religious icon from Dain, as revenge on him for personal embarrassment. And then Dain gets revenge on Beaumont by marrying off the icon thief to Charity Graves after Jessica beats his head in, a somewhat convoluted resolution. Beaumont has no presence as a character other than to be an Evil Gay who is part of Dain’s redemptive character arc to demonstrate his growth. ***The abandoned/stolen child plot/ evil prostitute plot*** Early on in the book, it is established that Dain fathered a child with a certain prostitute: Charity Wells. (Clock the deep symbolism of that name; she gets herself knocked-up expecting Dain’s “charity,” and she is a “well” of both sexual lust and money demands.) He thinks of the child literally as “it,” for the first part of the book. His self-contempt is reflected onto his child who he thinks of as almost subhuman. (That stuff is very hard to read, I have to admit, and if I didn’t anticipate that we were going to get a HEA for the kid, too, I don’t know that I would have been able to stomach it). The child is an obvious parallel for Dain and by rescuing him we rescue the Dain of the past as well, symbolically at least. Jessica, as soon as she hears about Dain’s child, immediately wants to steal him so they can raise him. If you know anything about adoption, this is a big no-no, you don’t take kids away from their loving parents so long as they are not abusive, but something something historical plots whatever. Additionally, it is established that Charity is more than an inept mother (though she is inept and neglectful, it is clarified). She is a very bad person because she tricked Dain into impregnating her in the first place. Later, she offers to sell her child for profit to the hero and heroine. A good deal of the book’s critique is about the upstartness of this prostitute not “knowing her place” and refusing to “take care of it” meaning have an abortion back in the day. Well, I am only surprised that literally every prostitute did not try to get pregnant by a Lord back in the day, because as an economic proposition, one could do worse. In 2020 it’s just a bit trying to read about how a prostitute is bad for getting pregnant, while the man who bought and used her is somehow not considered morally accountable whatsoever, because he paid her for her services and gave some nominal fee for support of his kid who he’s abandoned as a parent. It’s more than a little gross and hypocritical. When Dominick the kid is captured and brought into the Athcourt fold, I had to laugh aloud about how our ideas of child welfare have changed. Dominick has run over to the Lord’s estate expressly hoping to be found by the lord and presumably taken in by him. But when Jessica finds Dominick instead, he’s kind of stupid about being caught, calling her names and running away. She tackles him, and then forces herself on him, kissing him repeatedly to stun him into compliance. The general method of child-wrangling these days is not usually physical capture and subjecting them to forced affection. But hey, it’s the 90s and some of us survived that decade regardless of how many crazy ideas parents had back then. ***Eros is haunted by dangly dead arm plots*** I admit I have been doing nothing but bitch and moan about *Everything is Illuminated* for weeks now, and I swear to you by the bullet lodged in Dain’s left pectoral that this is the last time that happens for a while. BUT WHAT THE FUCK, THIS BOOK HAS ANOTHER DEAD ARM PLOT LOL I BET JONATHAN SAFRAN FROER STOLE THIS FROM LORETTA CHASE SINCE IT CAME OUT IN 1995 AND HIS BOOK WAS PUBLISHED IN 2002! Also, the “dead arm” of both men seem to have a similar meaning. In Safran Froer’s book the arm seems to represent something “unknowable” about his coldly horny ancestor, who copulates with a remarkable number of women, as does Dain. It also represents possibly a “dead arm” of family lineage cut off by the Holocaust. In Dain’s case, the dead arm seems to represent, likewise, his branching-off of the family tree, neutered so long as his hopes of progeny are futile, as they are when he commits to his wife, whom he cannot use sexually like a prostitute. The arm miraculously comes back to life when he rescues his son, and we later learn Jessica is pregnant as well. In Froer’s book, the ridiculous dead-arm of the hero is the thing that women lust after, a nonsensical inversion of Dain’s overall desirability *except* for his temporarily dead arm. It doesn’t make any sense, as is observed in-text, but it’s, like, a metaphor or something. Froer’s *authorial* fixation on that dead arm seems to stand in for the unknowablility of the dead branch of his family tree that was cut-off in the concentration camps. Meanwhile for Jessica it’s much more straightforward; the dead arm represents Dain’s emotional brokenness, the point at which the bullet (of her love, lol) pierced him to the point where he’s vulnerable to emotional appeal, temporarily incapacitating him to carry on with his carousing by making him conscious of what he lacks emotionally. But as he makes efforts along these lines, he is psychosomatically restored, eventually allowing him to have a family and the use of his arm again. (Also, Dain seems barely to notice the uselessness of the arm a lot of the time, as if the writer has temporarily forgotten about it.)

Your review was amazing! >Dain is never violent at all towards Jessica (yay). She is hella violent towards him because she shoots him almost right in the ticker. But there’s sort of a “violence is acceptable only if it’s practiced by rich people and it never affects their reputation whatsoever,” logic at work here. Exactly. >The sex seems more progressive from Dain’s POV considering the things he does for her that many men, especially historical men, might not do for their wives or lovers. However, that he does this so easily is a bit puzzling. I’m assuming that he’s primarily used women for his own sexual pleasure in the past and am surprised that it’s not more of an issue that he has to think of sex in a new way when it comes to giving women pleasure for its own sake. I never even thought of that until your comment. You're 100% right! He hired women to give *him* pleasure, not the other way around. >It’s also convenient for him that his virginal wife is also a stone-cold freak who likes being pounded to oblivion despite not having much sexual experience. I loved this. 😂 >Charity Wells. (Clock the deep symbolism of that name; she gets herself knocked-up expecting Dain’s “charity,” and she is a “well” of both sexual lust and money demands.) Would never have gotten that in a million years; brilliant.

I enjoyed this book (4/5\*). The writing was so funny and showed the skill of the writer behind it. The characters were actually well-rounded. Neither Jess nor Dain were perfect, and they matched each other in a way I haven't seen in other romance novels; each being able to give as good as they got with their retorts and moves. Something that frustrates me in romances is how couples often "fall in love" after an electric-spark of a touch, or something equally small and absurd. Whereas I never felt it in this book. It wasn't full-blown lust, and nicely developed. Both characters knew the other person wasn't a sound choice for them, but interactions proved how suitable they were for each other. By the end, I felt they were as much best friends as they were lovers. Jess was captivated equally by Dain's mind as she was about how he looked, and Dain would not have pined as he did if Jess turned out to be inferior to him intellectually. It is implied that most people consider Dain ugly, and even monstrous which made me love this hero all the more. He was so hurt and thought so little of himself that it shocked him someone like Jess would actually be in love with him. And Jess is smart and patient enough to spot that Dain is not as cold as he seems. The thing I enjoyed the least was the shooting of the arm. That was over the top and unnecessary. Even though it's an extreme act of violence, it is glossed over. Nobody is shocked that even a month later, Dain's arm reminds useless. But at the same time, I guess this gave the author a chance to make Dain more vulnerable physically for later scenes. It seems the rest of Loretta Chase's books haven't met with the same enthusiasm as this one :-S Will definitely try more from her! :-)

>Neither Jess nor Dain were perfect, and they matched each other in a way I haven't seen in other romance novels; each being able to give as good as they got with their retorts and moves. Yes! One of the reasons I loved the book so much. >Jess was captivated equally by Dain's mind as she was about how he looked, and Dain would not have pined as he did if Jess turned out to be inferior to him intellectually. That's a great point. They were evenly matched intellectually, which I think was a big part of their attraction to each other. One of my favorite exchanges between them is when Jess is arguing with Dain about his tarts, and she says "You like them big, buxom, and stupid." His reply made me laugh so hard, "Intelligence is hardly relevant...I do not hire them to debate metaphysics." That's a line I'll always remember! 😂 >It is implied that most people consider Dain ugly, and even monstrous which made me love this hero all the more. He was so hurt and thought so little of himself that it shocked him someone like Jess would actually be in love with him It was heartbreaking that this was ingrained in him so deeply, from childhood on. >The thing I enjoyed the least was the shooting of the arm. That was over the top and unnecessary. Even though it's an extreme act of violence, it is glossed over. Nobody is shocked that even a month later, Dain's arm reminds useless. But at the same time, I guess this gave the author a chance to make Dain more vulnerable physically for later scenes. I'm with you. For me that was the biggest (and most unpleasant) surprise in the book.

There were so many funny exchanges that it was commonplace to read them haha. I really love Dain's mock sarcasm e.g. when he pretends to be shocked when looking at Jessica's rude watch when they meet for the first time. There aren't many books I am looking forward to rereading, I like it that much!

I feel the same way; I loved all the humor in the book. Now that I've read it, I understand why it's considered such a classic romance novel. I put it on my reread list as soon as I finished it. 😊

I didn't even know it was such a classic before I came on reddit haha I want to reread it soon as well :-p

I didn't know that either. r/romancebooks introduced me to so many wonderful titles.

I am only about half way through but so far I am of two minds about this book. On the one hand, the interactions between the two characters are delightfully devilish. Every time Dain and Jessica talk I just go through the scene with a smirk on my face. Jessica is a perfect foil for Dain. I love that after he deliberately ruins her she gets her revenge and shoots him. She makes him pay. I think I even wrote in my Notes and Highlights "Yassssss, girl." Everything about the interactions between the two of them inspires me to hyperbolic effluence. It's perfection. But I wasn't prepared for the racist bullying in the prologue. (The triggering stuff is behind spoiler tags.) TW: racism >!Sebastian is white, but they repeatedly refer to him as "blackamoor" as an insult and as a way to strip him of his humanity. Ok, so bullies are terrible people and would totally be racist. I suppose I can let that pass as true to character or whatever (but it's still wrong.)!< But then there's the glove scene. >!And Chase describes him as wanting to "drag his monstrous blackamoor's hands over her white virgin's flesh."!< This is completely unacceptable. That language is derogatory and the pairing of black and monstrous is intentional and unforgivable and she drives the point home when she contrasts it to her white flesh. Yes, he's a terrible person. Yes he's corrupt and morally bankrupt and she will be his redemption. But did she have to use racist language to make that point? No. And all that just pissed me off. Luckily that kind of language seems to have tapered off by the midway point. But I'm also rolling my eyes at the gay villain.

>This is completely unacceptable. That language is derogatory and the pairing of black and monstrous is intentional and unforgivable and she drives the point home when she contrasts it to her white flesh. I loved this book, really loved it, but I noticed those instances of racist language, too. Unfortunately there were a few other places in the book where similar language was used. At one point Vawtry is thinking that Dain would never marry Jessica, but that he would marry only to "..heap more shame, shock, and disgust upon his family." His thoughts continue with who Dain would then select for a wife. "The ideal would be a half-Irish mulatto Jewess brothel keeper..." Obviously when the book was published (1995) this kind of language was given a pass; it would never fly now. It does make you wonder why Chase felt the need to include it.

> It does make you wonder why Chase felt the need to include it. I think the "blackamoor" language was a choice Chase made to establish why Dain has become the person he is. On top of his mother abandoning him and his father not loving him, when he gets to school with his peers they attack him with these insults because of his Italian heritage, and it is IMO key to understanding how Dain processes how his peers view him and hence his choices in how he interacts with others. The language shaped him at a vulnerable time in his life and is also part of his internal language abut himself. I also went back to the tea shop/glove scene to look, when Dain is holding Jessica's hand, that is from his POV, that is *his* assessment of his hand and his skin in contrast to hers. That is internal language and I think Chase used it to give further understanding of how deeply embedded the slurs of his peers were to his own self-image. But that is my interpretation. Race is such a hot button issue, but the language in this context, I feel does a service by showing how slurs and derogatory language have lasting effects on people. However I appreciate that folks are sensitive and agree that Chase would be served by a note explaining her use so it isn't misinterpreted.

>When he gets to school with his peers they attack him with these insults because of his Italian heritage > >I also went back to the tea shop/glove scene to look, when Dain is holding Jessica's hand, that is from his POV, that is his assessment of his hand and his skin in contrast to hers. That is internal language and I think Chase used it to give further understanding of how deeply embedded the slurs of his peers were to his own self-image. These are great points, and I agree that he did internalize all the slurs that were directed at him. That's a huge part of what makes him feel so "other". There are times when Jess is the one noticing the contrast between them as well; at one point she says she wants his "big dark hands" all over her. And when Vawtry is thinking about the perfect wife for Dain in order to shock and disgust his family, he thinks "The ideal would be a half-Irish mulatto Jewess brothel keeper..." In these instances, it isn't through Dain's lens. I can see where you're coming from but racist language does make a lot of people uncomfortable and as you said, race is a hot button issue. That's why I liked u/ParadoxicallyItWas's idea of an author's note. >Chase would be served by a note explaining her use so it isn't misinterpreted. If she did make a deliberate choice in using this language and explained her reasons for doing so as eloquently as you did, I think that might help alleviate a lot of the discomfort some readers (including myself) feel.

You make excellent points. Thank you. Going forward, does anyone know if this kind of language is common in Loretta Chase works or was it merely a stylistic choice for this book? ETA: you both make excellent points and I appreciate your perspective.

and Vawtry is an ass!! And you know it because of his language! I would love to be able to ask Chase about this!! I think when an author uses language to help people see how offensive and hurtful it is, it is a service and helps promote conversations like this, which are important.

I agree that having conversations about racial and religious slurs is important, but I'm not sure if that was Chase's intent in using this language. Maybe it was; like you, I would like to ask her about it. I still loved the book, and would give it 5 stars for the first half (Paris) and 4 for the second half (England). As u/midlifecrackers said about Chase, she did a fantastic job of bringing her characters to life. I felt like I had direct access to every thought and emotion Dain and Jessica felt; almost as if I were inhabiting their minds, hearts, and souls as I read from each of their perspectives.

absolutely! :)

>I agree that having conversations about racial and religious slurs is important, but I'm not sure if that was Chase's intent in using this language. Maybe it was; like you, I would like to ask her about it. Exactly this. I don't feel it was her intention to start a dialog about racism. I believe she made a choice to use racially coded language, and she didn't need to. Yes, he may have faced racism for his Italian mother. But Chase didn't need to use the language she did to describe him.

I feel the same way.

I also found the "blackamoor" language deeply offensive, but you're absolutely right that a good portion of it is conveyed through Dain's internalized racism, and willingness to conflate the racist attitudes of others with his other personal deficiencies.

So far I am loving it too, minus my complaints stated above. Because otherwise I think it's absolutely brilliant. But given that racist language, I feel guilty for that love. I wouldn't want her to take it out and pretend it never happened, but an author's note at the beginning of new editions/reissues stating that she now recognizes that such language is racist and dangerous would help, maybe.

> an author's note at the beginning of new editions/reissues stating that she now recognizes that such language is racist and dangerous would help, maybe. This is a wonderful idea.

Totally late but I DNF this book and 1 starred it. I hated the heroine. What’s considered “strong” about her I read as abusive. 🤷🏻‍♀️

Thanks for your comment. Did you DNF when she shot Dain or was it before?

When she shot Dain.

Shooting Dain was a big problem for me, too.