This book was just not for me. While I could obviously tell by the title what the plot of the book was going to be before I read it, for some reason I was hoping it find a way for it not be creepy. Well, on that account it failed. It was super creepy. Warning: Slightly rant-y. 
 This book begins right about when the last book left off. Bristol Manor has finally been taken back from the Kerr's and Geoffrey has given his brother Bryce (the hero) Bristol Manor. During the raid, Bryce and his men discover a woman face down, clearly injured, possibly close to death. Bryce actually wants to just leave her there, even without knowing who she was, which I found a little off-putting, but he eventually agrees to take her back to Bristol Manor and have her looked at by a healer. Bryce discovers that she is Lady Catrina Kerr and of course decides to keep her for ransom. Somewhere along the way, they fall in love. 
 Here begins said rant. 
 There was just so much about this book I didn't like. For one, I wasn't really a fan of the instant attraction between Bryce and Katrina. Especially from her. She was instantly in lust with him and I found it ridiculous. There are actual scenarios that I could see that happening. Plenty of them. Maybe her captor could have been kind and told her that she is only captive in name and set her up a nice guest room. Perhaps while explaining that he hates everything she is, he doesn't blame her for everything, but he still needs the ransom. Maybe he could have just ignored her and slowly seen what an actually nice person she was. But none of that took place. He immediately makes it clear that he hates her, she is his prisoner, he wants to take all of what her brother has, that he also intends to kill her brother, and he will keep her captive for however long it takes to get what he wants. And yet, she just can't help but think how handsome he is and wonders why he never smiles. Granted there isn't much she can do about her situation, but come on. I was hoping she would muster up a little more than an occasional what an insufferable man attitude. It didn't even matter when he locked in a room for days. When she saw Bryce all she could think about was how handsome he was and the way his muscles moved beneath his clothes. I wanted to reach into the book and throttle the woman. She does try to escape, but the fact that her escape was so poorly planned didn't help my opinion of her. 
 I found Bryce so hard to like. He was judgmental, rude, unpleasant, angry, and he just seemed...miserable. Then again, Catrina really wasn't a picnic either. She was careless, inconsistent, naive and at one point, incredibly manipulative. She wasn't a bad person by any means, but I found it hard to sympathize with her. 
 The fact that I found the MCs unlikable isn't that big of a deal. It happens. Not every character can be a giant ball of sunshine. But it was what happened near the end of the book that really bothered me. I absolutely cannot believe that all of the people around Lady Catrina, including Bryce's family, encouraged her to trap Bryce into marrying her. They insisted that was the best thing to do for Bryce. Catrina just kind of shrugged and says "Okay, I mean, I do love him after all." Because of course. The fact that you love him and that his family seems sure that he's into you totally makes it okay for you to try and take advantage of his honor and force him into a marriage that would connect him to a family he despises and blames for the death of his parents and bind him to a woman that he has not said he loves. This sounds like a sound plan. This sounds like a reasonable thing to do. 
 Being trapped into marriage is a well-explored trope in romance, I get that. But I'd like to think that it usually takes place before one character clearly explains to the other that they do not want the marriage. I don't really care if they mean what they say. It's one thing to try to convince them otherwise, it is completely another decide whether you should actively attempt (or actually decide) to take the choice away after someone's decision has been made. 
 I can't really decide if the next part of my rant is an actual spoiler or not, so I'm going to hide it. Personally, I don't think it's a spoiler but who knows, maybe I'm wrong. 
 Catrina admits to herself that she wants to see if she could push him beyond his honor so that he would sleep with her. When Bryce finally caves and decides to sleep with her, he point-blank tells her (before they sleep together) that it doesn't mean he will marry her. He spells it out for her as plainly as possible. I'M NOT GOING TO MARRY YOU BECAUSE OF THIS. After they sleep together and she finds him gone, she thinks to herself that she cannot believe she gave herself to a man who had not even discussed the possibility of marriage to her. I'm sorry, what? He just said sleeping with him will not lead to marriage. I would consider that discussing the possibility of marriage, as in, there isn't one. And Bryce? Bryce is even worse! He takes her virginity and sneaks out of their tent that morning to fight her brother to the death. A fight that Catrina obviously knows nothing about. He spends a moment mourning the fact that Catrina will hate him forever for murdering her brother. But whatever, he just shrugs and goes off on his merry way to do what he wants. It's like these two don't have a brain between them! 
 Okay, I think I'm done ranting. 
 Despite my obvious dislike of many parts of the book, there was one thing that I really liked and it was something I've been waiting to see in a romance novel forever. The fact that heroine can do everything is actually remarked upon. She was known for it. Everyone who knows Catrina acknowledges and applauds the way that she seems to be good at everything she tries. A jack of all trades. There are people like that. It happens! I've always wondered why authors don't just work that into the novel as part of the characterization. It made such a difference because it completely took away any frustration over the fact that she was amazing at everything. She loved learning new things, was smart (at least in some way), and obviously a quick study. Loved that. 
 Unfortunately, there were just too many problems for me to recommend this. I wasn't a fan of the characters or the plot. It was in no way the worst book I've read, I just didn't enjoy reading it all. 
 *I receive an ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review.