Well this is what happens when you accidentally leave your own books at home and end up rooting through a family member's attic for reading material.

What the hell was this? I recognize it was just a romance novel, not some Pulitzer prize winner, but the dialogue was atrocious and incredibly contrived and forced, the innumerable (and unnecessary) twists and turns lead to a still pathetically predictable ending (oh surprise surprise at who got who....and I don't just mean the main 2. You could have seen all the pairings coming in the first 20 pages or so), and even the sex and romance was dull and badly written, which, since that's the reason many people seem to read romance novels, is practically sacrilege. Oh, and it had the most ridiculous drawing on the inside cover. How many Scots run around in their kilts and NOTHING ELSE, and the female is wearing something no one had even conceived of in 19th century England. AAAAH!

I want my Mary Tudor biography back.

(EDIT: I feel compelled to point out: I'm not a connoisseur of romance novels. I almost never read them, and in fact avoid them. Therefore, people who enjoy this genre in general should probably take my review with a grain of salt.)

Ehhhh romance was only okay. And since that's kind of the point of this type of book...not good. Also kind of irked me that people were constantly "bursting out laughing" at things that weren't that funny.

For the writing I would have given 4 stars, it engaged me from the very beginning and kept the reading enjoyable throughout the book, in spite of the list of other things that annoyed me.
Perhaps I would have liked the book better if I wouldn't have to what compare. I liked Sabrina well, she was a great character, however, I couldn't relate to her feelings of not being worthy of attention as I could only recently in Rose Lerner's "In for a penny". And as for Duncan... OK, it is impossible to live up to my favourite scot ever Jamie Fraser from Outlander books, but there just wasn't anything particular to like in Duncan. I guess author tried to portray him as a bit wild and "barbarian", but ended up making him hectic, inconsistent and somewhat not grown up.
The romance too lacked some logic for me. The start was nice one, but afterwards things progressed so rapidly I couldn't even follow through how they got there.
But still the book had a chance for 4 stars, because, still, it was enjoyable read. Until about around the middle. Excuse me, what kind of plot twist is that??? Something so utterly silly and stupid, and at the end just a misunderstanding and bad combination of events. And half of the story evolved around that. Argh...

3.5 rounded up! This is my second Johanna Lindsey book that I read and this one was so much better! I really like the hero (Duncan) in this one and although I did like the heroine (Sabrina), I wish she stood up for herself way earlier on in the book. Duncan is a sweet and protective hero without coming off as a alpha douche so that was great! Sabrina is funny, sweet, and introverted! Together Sabrina and Duncan really brought out the best in each other and their romance was sweet but not without the drama from fake friends and scandals. Really enjoyed this one, will continue the series.

One of my all time favorites of hers.

Ridiculous. Completely absurd. How is this even romance?
There’s no connection between the MCs. No character development. Nothing. Most of the book focused on Ophelia and she’s not even the female protagonist! I hated her so much it’s absolutely certain that I’ll not read read her book. As for Duncan, he’s hardly got a personality. He’s friends with Sabrina and then the next moment he decides he has romantic feelings for her. That basically happens at the end all of a sudden. And so much stupid drama. I hated this.