Synopsis:
Swept from the aristocracy of England to the Colonies on the eve of war, Jessamine Stone vows to wed no man but her one time fiance Christian Haukinge. She sets out to win back Christian’s affections, unaware that her brother has already offered him a bribe to break her heart.
Driven by something dark, Christian agrees to the devil’s bargain, but soon finds Jessie’s innocent passion, trust, and faith undermine his resolve for vengeance. Now only the woman he has betrayed can heal his deep and scarring wounds. But these are dangerous times and love alone cannot mend all wounds.
Review:
I got this as an Audible from the author and publisher.
I was really surprise with this book because it was nothing like the synopsis. The synopsis was only the beginning of the story and there were so much more after that that I was unaware of and it really got me unhinged.
I was really hooked from the beginning because I absolutely liked Christian and his back-story to why he was willing to ruin Jessamine and take her brother’s money. But I really wanted more from him as the story went on, even if I did get a lot from him as the story moved from England to the Colonies in America I wanted more depth and emotion other than just jealousy and rage. But he does have my point for having this huge bag of love for Jess before everything went down the drain. I really liked that he was in tune to his feelings for her and were very open about it too.
But Jess on the other hand I didn’t like so much. From the very beginning you can tell she was very naive and clumsy, innocent and childish. She didn’t know much about relationships which I understood for her time but can she really be that naive at the age of 22? I’m not sure, she should had known something of the likes or something, but that’s just my opinion. She was interesting I’ll admit especially when she was was in conversation with Christian, I found it witty and fun. But as time went down the drain I just found her annoying and a TSTL heroine for Christian. When did it change? It was really at the beginning of the story when she couldn’t open her dang mouth to speak the truth against her scheming brother and tell Christian she loved him when he had said it to her.
So now Christian thinks her a harlot for playing him because she’s supposedly “engaged” to this 50 year old dude (who stole Jess from Christian 6 years ago when he lost his title to his ash of a brother by proclaiming him a bastard) and so Christian ruins Jess by asking if she “liked” their scandalous liaison under the oak tree a couple of days ago~ She deserved that for not opening her mouth and being stupid! But anyways, he leaves her to the colony and she is sent to live with her uncle, incidentally “also” in the colony.
So here was where the whole story changed and threw me off. I knew Christian was a….privateer of a sort from the beginning and a revolutionist so I knew something was going to be focused around this part of the story but it was just so different. I thought I was reading a totally different story. It went from a revenged filled love story to a pirate smuggler revolutionist story on the run from the law! Plus, Christian was so different from the Christian I was introduced too. Yes, he was heart broken and now back in his Captain role as smuggler and revolutionist but he was just so mean! Yet I liked him because he still had that familiar vibe to him. And Jess deserved his harsh words and treatment.
But Jess was just another story. She just gotten worse. She was even more stupid than I thought she could get. I liked that she got out of her shell now that she’s “ruined” and away from her brother but she’s still so dumb. For example, when she’s arguing with Christian about who gets to sleep on the bed or in the bedroom she would always expect him to do as she says and when he doesn’t, she gets mad and does the opposite of what he has told her and storms off. But then she thinks to herself and says something along the lines of;
“…he should have came after me…he should have given me the bed….he doesn’t care about me at all…“.
But enough about my irritations about Jess, the story just got me brooding through in boredom. I mean Christian was just mean, and mean he was. But he was just trying to teach Jess a lesson in listening to him, he does tell the truth you know, but she just won’t listen because she thought he played her with the bet he did with her brother so he’s not worth trusting.
But a whole lot of stuff went on and yeah, we all knew who the villain was…. But it was just slow going.
Oh should I say this had a fleeting of the bodice-ripper theme in it. Yup, Christian and Jess’s relationship was basically a bodice-ripper read. It was just irritating that she would oppose but loved it and want it all at the same time. I’ll say it was one of those love-hate relationships and every time they “did it” it was just plain and simple anger sex! I felt no love in it sadly, just anger.
But one thing I absolutely hated was that their whole relationship problem was easily solved at once with the fact that Jess finally told Christian she loved him. With those “magical” words everything was pushed aside and fixed automatically between the two! It was just so…unbelievable to me that their whole love-hate relationship could be fixed just like that!
So yes, what did I think of it as a whole? I really didn’t like it. I really just wanted the beginning story of the revenged filled romance and could have done without the other half of the story with the smuggling and stuff. Plus the whole story could have been easily solved with Jess opening her mouth and telling Christian she loved him! That whole misunderstanding between the two wouldn’t have to have happened if she would have just spoken her stupidly mind.
So yeah, I’m not sure what to think but that I’m sorry I didn’t like this as much as I would have liked coming from an author I liked. I hope I will enjoy some of her other works more so I’m not giving up hope on her.
3 out 5
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