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A review by pn_hinton
Unveiled by Courtney Milan
4.0
I’ve been a fan of Courtney Milan since I picked up The Countess Affair. The premise intrigued me and it was a freebie so I figured it was a worthy gamble. And I was glad that I did because she fast became one of my favorite romance writers.
I still enjoyed this one, although it did take me awhile to get into. I was prepared to dislike Ash as a hero, and at first, I didn’t. His single mindedness for revenge, while warranted, did hurt Margaret and her mother as well as the men he wanted to hurt. And as with most every situation the women were innocent bystanders in this. However, as you read more about Ash and his history with the Duke, you could understand why he was so narrow minded. His issue with her brothers were a bit more to swallow since I, as the reader, just chalked that up to boyhood rivalry. Even Mark, who was the target of her brothers Edmund and Richard, didn’t understand Ash’s borderline obsession with revenge. There were also signs he’d be one of those heroes from the dawn of romance (meaning that he would pretty much force himself on Margaret) and but that didn’t happen. I had the “Enhanced” edition, and while Milan mentioned in the bonus features initially wanting to do that, she changed her mind knowing that wasn’t the type of hero she wanted for her stories.
Ash also let himself be vulnerable to Margaret. I won’t go into details for fear of spoilers but he shared a lot with her before anything physical happened. Margaret also didn’t use anything she found out for revenge, as she intended, which was interesting to see, considering what Ash had done to her family. It showed that Margaret was a true lady despite the bastard label society wanted to give her, but also helped to show that Margaret could be her own person and not do what society or her family expected of her.
Their relationship did start off as an odd sort of friendship which was nice. Both made mistakes, such as the cringe worthy moments when Ash would badmouth the Dalrymple family including the daughter not knowing it was Margaret. But it grew into love at a steady and believable pace.
This one took me a bit to get into, mainly due to my initial dislike of Ash. But it had in it what I love about all of Milan’s stories which is that the characters are people. They’re people who are flawed, who make mistakes, who have issues, who have pasts, who have scars, etc. And they’re intelligent, especially the women which is always nice to see. Overall an enjoyable book and one I would likely read again.
I still enjoyed this one, although it did take me awhile to get into. I was prepared to dislike Ash as a hero, and at first, I didn’t. His single mindedness for revenge, while warranted, did hurt Margaret and her mother as well as the men he wanted to hurt. And as with most every situation the women were innocent bystanders in this. However, as you read more about Ash and his history with the Duke, you could understand why he was so narrow minded. His issue with her brothers were a bit more to swallow since I, as the reader, just chalked that up to boyhood rivalry. Even Mark, who was the target of her brothers Edmund and Richard, didn’t understand Ash’s borderline obsession with revenge. There were also signs he’d be one of those heroes from the dawn of romance (meaning that he would pretty much force himself on Margaret) and but that didn’t happen. I had the “Enhanced” edition, and while Milan mentioned in the bonus features initially wanting to do that, she changed her mind knowing that wasn’t the type of hero she wanted for her stories.
Ash also let himself be vulnerable to Margaret. I won’t go into details for fear of spoilers but he shared a lot with her before anything physical happened. Margaret also didn’t use anything she found out for revenge, as she intended, which was interesting to see, considering what Ash had done to her family. It showed that Margaret was a true lady despite the bastard label society wanted to give her, but also helped to show that Margaret could be her own person and not do what society or her family expected of her.
Their relationship did start off as an odd sort of friendship which was nice. Both made mistakes, such as the cringe worthy moments when Ash would badmouth the Dalrymple family including the daughter not knowing it was Margaret. But it grew into love at a steady and believable pace.
This one took me a bit to get into, mainly due to my initial dislike of Ash. But it had in it what I love about all of Milan’s stories which is that the characters are people. They’re people who are flawed, who make mistakes, who have issues, who have pasts, who have scars, etc. And they’re intelligent, especially the women which is always nice to see. Overall an enjoyable book and one I would likely read again.