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The girls gots taste

::ducks and runs:;

I love, love, love LoS! The whole beginning of the book sets up why Dain is the way he is. It made me want to hold him and heal him – just like Jess did.

But I have to admire you – we are all so quick to jump on heroines for bad behavior, but so quick to excuse it in our heroes. You call him on the carpet for it, so how can I blame you for it? I can’t – I can only agree to disagree with you

Signs of emotional abuse include isolation from family and friends, manipulation with lies and contradictions, public humiliation, frequent threats of leaving or telling the partner to leave, frequent criticisms, etc. I don’t have the book in front of me, but I am fairly sure Dain is guilty of at least some of these.

Some women like this in their fictional heroes. I totally get it. I’m just not one of them.

I’m not one of them either. The thing I like about LOS, is that every attempt that Dain makes at one of these things is kind of a desperate attempt to protect himself from feelings he is clueless about. And Jessica always sends it back. He tries public humiliation, she humiliates him far worse instead and ends up with her proposal to boot. As for the others, I’ll think about it. I always felt that Jessica manipulated Dain quite neatly and entertainingly. Everyone will read characters and books differently, and among the things affecting those readings will be personal hot buttons, like emotional abuse. With Chase’s lively, tight, ‘show, don’t tell’ writing style (few writers can beat her dialogue), and her well-developed, intelligent pro-active heroine (an unfortunate rarity in romance), I really do feel that LOS rises above a standard bad boy reformed rake story. A lot of it’s in the writing style, which may appeal to some more than others. I suspect most of us who love LOS do so in large part because of the heroine and the repartee, not because we enjoy abusive heroes.

My favorite Chase novel is Mr. Impossible. My favorite Chase work is a novella called the Mad Earl’s Bride. It is absolute perfection.

Signs of emotional abuse include isolation from family and friends, manipulation with lies and contradictions, public humiliation, frequent threats of leaving or telling the partner to leave, frequent criticisms, etc. I don’t have the book in front of me, but I am fairly sure Dain is guilty of at least some of these.

Some women like this in their fictional heroes. I totally get it. I’m just not one of them.

DEVON! you must review it too!!!! That will be SUCH good fun that is funny. I am loving this discussion!

I have to admit I want to reread this because I read it before I knew I was suppose to LOVE it and that it is the bestest evah. Read, enjoyed it, solid C, used book stored it and then got online and was like huh what?

So I plan to reread it. And really expected Lawson to loveseses muchly. I adore a reformed rake… so who knows.

My secret wish is that someday Dominic would get a story. I think Chase could make it really interesting.

I traded it away years and years ago. Found it again recently. Read it again, cover to cover. Maybe I’d missed something the first time around.

Nope. Sorry. Still a solid “Meh.”

(It was traded away again.)

Nor do I think Jessica pandered to him. Sure, she babied him a bit, but when it came down to it, she did what she wanted, not what Dain thought she should do.

Maybe I loved the book so much because Jessica was the first historical heroine I’d ever read about who acted so real.

But you aren’t the first person I’ve heard say she doesn’t like this book. I was spellbound, but isn’t that the best thing about romance readers? Or different taste?

That sounds more like a Diana Palmer hero. I don’t recall Dain being abusive at all. Egocentric and pig headed, sure. Abused, certainly. Callous and unfeeling toward his own child, yes (but how better to illustrate his redemption?) But never abusive. Did I miss something?

My kind of gal.

I wonder if it is mainly women who are used to the old time heroes who like LOS To me, it read a lot like those 1970s romances, where the hero is a brutish emotional child who just needs the selfless masochism, I mean “femininity” of a good woman to mature a bit.

When I was 13 I might have really gotten into that angry, jealous, and violence prone type of hero. Now I see it for what it is: abuse, not to be tolerated, no matter how hot and well hung he is.

The thing about Dain is he’s the male version of a drama queen (as Jessie puts it, he’s high-strung). Men like that need love, too, you know. *G*

But yes, different strokes. I also like the rake reformed plots when done well, so this was just an all-around perfect book for me.

Here’s my deal: Even if Dain has all this inner turmoil, he still behaves abominably on the outside and even though Jess knows that, she still caters to him and his whims. And yes, when he rescues his son, he has that epiphany, but then his son worships him and so he can behave anyway he wants and get what he wants from everyone. Bah.

I did like Jess and her independence though. Even though she felt she had to deal with Dain a certain way, she never lost her independence or her ability to act as she felt was best.

—->Ditto. LOS is one of my least favorite Chase books because of its hero. I hate it when a difficult childhood is used as an excuse for someone to be a jerk to the extent that Dain is. And his attitude toward his bastard son was really something else, considering all he had suffered himself at that age!

Chase has written many wonderful books that sit on my keepers shelf but I gave LOS a big, fat D-.

I was thinking there must be something wrong with me. Eh, oh well….I’ll read it one day, I’m sure.

I can understand though how you might not like this one and scratch your head wondering what everyone else seems to see that you don’t. I’m like that with some books too