The story itself was fine, but the main couple was blah. The fmc started strong and fearless, and then turned into an idiot and a doormat. What's the point on trying to make us believe she is strong-willed but then have her bow down to the guy every time? She let the guy run all over her and push her into thing, she let him get away with being an ass and even at the end was ready to apologize when he was the one in the wrong. The mmc was an alphahole; he kept manhandling, not listening to her, threatened to beat her up, and even pushed her to marry him. He never actually redeemed himself for his horrible abusive behavior. He had no good qualities, and in the end she had nothing to do with the plan to safe her own life and just needed to be saved by him. The side character started strong and then just sort of got lost, except for Milford, who really should have been the mmc because he was so much better than Bradford. Her family sort of disappears in the second half of the book too. No mention of Benjamin either.

oof the misogyny was strong in this one

The story of Caroline, an unconventional young lady that is just returning from the Colonies where she grew up, in order to find her cousin's missing fiance.

Shortly after arriving in England, she encounters a robbery in progress and ends up saving the carriage's occupant before his close friend the Duke of Bradford arrives to the scene. Bradford is immediately captivated by the unconventional Caroline and is determined to pursue her.

Caroline reunites with her father who she believes sent her away without a backward glance, only to discover

Spoiler

that he did it to save her life, since at age 4 she saved his life by killing a man and others are still after her

. Caroline and Bradford set out to uncover the mystery of who the villains are and the reasons for their actions and in the process learn how to trust and love one another.

Despite its very engaging beginning, the book is not one of Garwood's best or most memorable.

This book had such a promising start. Unfortunately it didn't quite live up to it's potential. It was still an ok read just not as good as it could have been. The hero, Bradford was a giant douche. And the heroine, Caroline, seemed like a strong girl in the beginning but then just grated on my nerves as the book progressed.

Not the author's best, but if you really like her books you will enjoy this one for what it is.

This was not my favorite of Miss Garwood's novels! It felt somewhat forced and more formulaic and corny than her other works...and while the main character and the romance were still swoon-worthy, the plot left much to be desired.
Oh well, I needed a light and frivolous read and this definitely fit the bill!

I highly recommend The Bride, The Wedding, The Gift, The Secret, and The Prize by Julie Garwood (they are all somewhat similar, but they are all really great romances!!)

Julie Garwood is one of my favourite romance authors. I've read all of her books. I've read this one too some years ago and now reread it again, because I had forgotten what it was about, and found I really, really hate Bradford. He's the kind of man that nowadays is known as an abuser. Granted, he never slapped Caroline, but his every other action was to grab her shoulders and shake her. What is worse, he constantly abused her mentally. I understand he had some kind of reason for his awful behaviour, but we didn't really got to know what specifically that is.
And Caroline was just as bad. I can't understand what possibly she could have seen in Bradford. And what annoys me the most is the fact that she just can't resist the temptation to sleep whit him, no matter how overbearing he is or how angry she is with him. Even after he indirectly called her a slut and was so awful to her when she was just attacked, she somehow couldn't keep her hand away from him. WTH?
And one other thing. The novel started interesting enough. Caroline seemed like a strong and independent woman, but she converted into lust-driven idiot, which is a shame, because she had potential.
The only good thing about the novel was Milford. IMO, he should have been the main character and I can't understand why he wasn't.
Rant over.


Lastly, I want to apologise for my poor grammar as English is not my native language.

Generous 2

Ehhh. I really like Julie Garwood's writing, but with this book I felt she kind of fell flat. I appreciate good banter between characters, and I like when there is more to a story then just the love interest, but there was SO much other stuff going on here that the main story felt rushed and was annoying at times. I thought the ending was abrupt and kind of cheese-y - not sure I'd recommend this one.