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A review by halffast
The Flame and the Flower by Kathleen E. Woodiwiss
4.0
Overall I really liked this story, though it dragged on a little at the end.
Both Brandon and Heather have a ton of character growth which is very satisfying to experience. Heather is so young and unconfident in the beginning, and Brandon overpowers her both physically and mentally with ease. My heart went out to Heather multiple times for acting meek and acknowledging that she was acting cowardly, but honestly she was so out of her depth at the time.
Brandon starts off as such an unbelievably cocky jackass, and by the end he's getting dressed for a ball and boyishly hopes Heather finds him handsome. It's adorable, to say the least, how hard he falls for her, and after mistreating her so terribly at the start he's basically groveling the rest of the book which was critical to his redemption. However, the groveling is interspersed with plenty of mistakes, misunderstandings and pride (on both lead characters parts).
One of the most memorable scenes for me was about midway through the book where Brandon really loses his temper and yells at Heather. Three people hear him (his brother, his employee/servant, and his head housekeeper) and each scolds him in their own way. He had already felt bad about yelling and intended to apologize to Heather, but after seeing these three (four counting Heather) turn their backs on him due to his behavior, he realizes he really needs to grow up and re-evaluate how he treats his wife.
*** Spoilers in the rest of my review!
I liked the point where both characters separately realized they loved each other and vowed to make the relationship work. The number of times they felt close to fixing everything and then got interrupted was almost comical.
There were two things near the end that I didn't like.
1) How Heather was so desperate to keep William C's death a secret from her husband that she gave away her jewels to Thomas Hint. It tied into the larger plot point of finding out Hint was the murderer, but I wasn't quite sold on her fears here. It felt a little irrational given that she had experienced such growth in maturity and confidence.
2) Heather never stood up to Louisa in a satisfying way. I would've liked to see at least one moment where she told L, "Stop talking to me like that, and don't call me a child!" Brandon (and other characters) always jumped to her rescue, which was fine but I wanted to see Heather do it.
Both Brandon and Heather have a ton of character growth which is very satisfying to experience. Heather is so young and unconfident in the beginning, and Brandon overpowers her both physically and mentally with ease. My heart went out to Heather multiple times for acting meek and acknowledging that she was acting cowardly, but honestly she was so out of her depth at the time.
Brandon starts off as such an unbelievably cocky jackass, and by the end he's getting dressed for a ball and boyishly hopes Heather finds him handsome. It's adorable, to say the least, how hard he falls for her, and after mistreating her so terribly at the start he's basically groveling the rest of the book which was critical to his redemption. However, the groveling is interspersed with plenty of mistakes, misunderstandings and pride (on both lead characters parts).
One of the most memorable scenes for me was about midway through the book where Brandon really loses his temper and yells at Heather. Three people hear him (his brother, his employee/servant, and his head housekeeper) and each scolds him in their own way. He had already felt bad about yelling and intended to apologize to Heather, but after seeing these three (four counting Heather) turn their backs on him due to his behavior, he realizes he really needs to grow up and re-evaluate how he treats his wife.
*** Spoilers in the rest of my review!
Spoiler
I liked the point where both characters separately realized they loved each other and vowed to make the relationship work. The number of times they felt close to fixing everything and then got interrupted was almost comical.
There were two things near the end that I didn't like.
1) How Heather was so desperate to keep William C's death a secret from her husband that she gave away her jewels to Thomas Hint. It tied into the larger plot point of finding out Hint was the murderer, but I wasn't quite sold on her fears here. It felt a little irrational given that she had experienced such growth in maturity and confidence.
2) Heather never stood up to Louisa in a satisfying way. I would've liked to see at least one moment where she told L, "Stop talking to me like that, and don't call me a child!" Brandon (and other characters) always jumped to her rescue, which was fine but I wanted to see Heather do it.