Would you like some cake with that frosting? 
 Don't get me wrong, I love happy endings. In fact, when a book like this doesn't end happy, I feel immensely disappointed. But in this case, the ending was even too sappy for me. It dragged on and on until the author had tucked away all the loose ends and wrapped the story in shiny purple paper with a big yellow bow. 
 Even though there was a lot of violence and danger in this book, the only people who ended up dead were the bad guys. Any mistakes or reckless choices the "good guys" made were promptly forgiven. Ruined relationships were salvaged; estrangements were repaired; every child in this book was well behaved; and infidelity resulted in new realizations and ended up increasing everyone's happiness. 
 Need I say more? The writing was good, but I just could not buy that Jack, the womanizing mercenary, was in any way the marriageable type. His thoughts--and all the thoughts of the male characters for that matter--read like the thoughts of a woman. 
 Yes, I know we live in the age of equality, where we like to think men and women are the same. But I'm sorry, I don't buy that men and women think about love in the same way. 
 Otherwise, it was a good read. The pacing was good until the end when the darn thing wouldn't end and the author kept introducing characters from her previous books. Anyway, I digress. 
 It was a delicious cupcake. Just, when you eat it, scrape the frosting off first.