Am I the only one who HATED this book? Judging from all the rave reviews, I seem to have an unpopular opinion about this novel. Seriously. Don't get me wrong though, I love Tessa Dare and I'm a big fan of her novels, but this was just so awful that I had to stop between readings and vent out my frustrations to my sister. Gah. 
 First, the hero: The "scandalous, dissolute, no-good Mr. Wight" may not entirely be worthless, but he's manipulative, arrogant, selfish, and dishonourable. It frustrated the hell out of me how, during the first few chapters of the novel, he would always act as though he knew everything about the heroine. 
 For example, at the beginning, when they were locked in a room together, Eliza wanted to go out but he wouldn't budge: 
 She fumbled for the door latch and wrenched it open. A strong masculine hand covered hers, pushing the door closed. 
 "You don't want to leave," he said calmly. "Not yet." 
 Eliza stared up at him, horrified. "I assure you I do." 
 ... 
 She cast a beseeching look at the door latch. "Mr. Wright, please. Won't you let me out?" 
 He didn't answer. Not with words. He simply turned the key in the door lock, removed it, and stashed it away in his waistcoat pocket. 
 She was trapped. 
 "Why would you do that?" she asked, staring up at the locked door. 
 "Because you don't want to go." His voice was darkly sweet and so forbidden, like rum. "You want to stay here with me a little longer." 
 Uuuuuuuh. Wtf? I understand that he HAD to stop Eliza from coming out of the room to prevent her from getting ruined (apparently he was about to meet with his ladylove, and the said ladylove would have spotted Eliza), but couldn't he have acted, oh, I dunno, less of an ass while he was at it? Seriously! His answer was so arrogant that I literally paused and re-read the lines, just to make sure that I didn't make it all up. But this was just the beginning, so I was thinking, "Okay, maybe things'll get better and maybe he won't be such an ass in the future." Ugh. Whatever hope I had for him quickly diminished with every passing chapter, especially when she strolled the ruins with Philippa and Brentley, and when she gave her virginity to him. 
 Let me explain. Eliza and her sister, Philippa, meets Mr. Wright and his best friend, Mr. Brentley while in the country. Philippa and Brentley take a liking to each other, but Wright is convinced that Philippa was making a mistake (at this time, Brentley had tons of debts). Eliza, of course, would not know about Brentley's financial problems until later on in the story, so she was baffled when Wright seemed to have prevented anything from blossoming between the two. Thus, Eliza, while touring the ruins with the three, pretended to hurt her ankle just so she could waylay Wright and trick him into giving the two some privacy. Of course, being the omniscient demigod that he is, Wright immediately knew that this was Eliza's way of getting the two together. *rolls eyes* 
 "Now then. Let's have a look." 
 Eliza jerked the muslin from his grasp. "Absolutely not." 
 "But you're injured." 
 "I'm not dead," she whispered. "Which is what I'd have to be, to permit you to lift my skirts." 
 His hand slid beneath the frail fabric, grazing her stockinged ankle. A caress as shocking in its familiarity as in its boldness. He touched her easily, without excuse or apology. As though she were his for the touching. 
 HUUH. WHAT. THE. FUCK. HE COULD HAVE AT LEAST APOLOGIZED OR SOMETHING. And such display of concern would have been okay had it been genuine, but it was so damn obvious that he knew what Eliza was up to that it was just cruel doing that to her. SERIOUSLY. WHAT THE FUCK. 
 And then he goes all: 
 He came to stand before her. "I want you to know that there's someone who sees you. The real you. The girl who can't bring herself to plait her hair at night, because it pains her vanity... The girl who's clever enough to recognize a dangerous man when she sees one--but desperately wants him to kiss her anyway." 
 Oh, hail the all knowing Mr. Wright! God. I've had my share of overly confident heroes, but there's a line between tolerable and intolerable arrogance. Please. Oh, I get the fact that he may have just been pointing out the obvious SINCE THE HEROINE'S SUCH A WEAK CHARACTER (I'll get to this later) but must he have said this in such an arrogant way? What was he proving anyway? I get that he wanted to put out a facade, but really, I never saw the point of it all--the point of this charade. What was its relevance anyway? I get the fact that he was protecting Brentley, but wasn't he going too far with the convincing? Because damn he really convinced ME that he was an arrogant ass. He was already a blackguard in the eyes of society, did he really have to prove that to everyone he met? Did he have to act like that to EVERYONE? 
 God. And okay, so after his "honourable" and "unselfish" reasons were made clear to Eliza, they fall in love. Wright decides to be a better man and enlists in the army. Eliza, before he goes off to his regiment, decides to give her virginity to him. And this is what he did after doing the deed with her: 
 She lifted her eyes to his and placed a hand to his cheek. "And you must stay alive, Harry. I don't care if you come back changed or wounded, just so long as you come back. I'll wait for you." 
 He shook his head sternly. "Don't say that. Don't wait for me, Eliza. You're young and lively and beautiful, and once this house emerges from mourning, every unmarried buck in your youth will be vying for your attention. I want you to have your youth, even if you never have that debut. When I'm cold and shivering a thousand miles away, it would kill me to think of you waiting. I want to think of you dancing. Laughing. Driving wild and fast through the park." 
 DID I JUST READ THAT, BITCH? 
 DID YOU JUST TAKE HER VIRGINITY WITHOUT PROPOSING TO HER?!?!??! WITH THAT WEAKASS ARGUMENT???? Don't you even understand that assuming she gets married to some bloke, she would be disgraced for having given her virginity to you? She would have been scorned by her future husband for not being a virgin! That is, IF she fails to tell him before the marriage. But if somehow news of her loss of virginity breaks out, she would be ruined. She would be a pariah. WHAT THE FUCK!!?!?!? SERIOUSLY!?!??!?!???! 
 AND AT THE END OF THE CHAPTER HE HAD THE BALLS TO CHASTISE HER WHEN HE THOUGHT SHE WAS MARRYING ANOTHER MAN: 
 "What happened to 'I'll wait for you, Harry.'" 
 "What happened to, 'Don't wait for me Eliza?'" She stared at him, wide eyed with amusement. "You told me you'd never marry me. You told me we had no future." 
 "Yes but you weren't supposed to believe me..." 
 THAT'S WHAT YOU SAY TO HER???? REALLY???? AFTER LEADING HER TO BELIEVE THAT YOU WOULDN'T MARRY HER, THAT'S WHAT YOU SAY TO HER??? And oh, it didn't matter that you were the asshole who paired her sister Philippa up with Peter (whom Eliza liked before) just so he could get Peter out of the way as a rival. Nope, it didn't matter at all that Philippa was knocked up by Peter. Meh. It didn't matter, right, since they got married in the end? WHAT THE FUCK. THAT'S SO FUCKING SELFISH. 
 And oh, the heroine was just so weakminded that it's a shock that she didn't need anyone to chew her food for her. Seriously, have some spine woman!!! Whenever Wright said something about her, she believed him and went all "Hey maybe I AM like that." DEAR GOD WOMAN CANT YOU FORM YOUR OWN OPINIONS ABOUT YOURSELF???? Oh, yes, of course I she tried to tell him that there were some things about her that he was wrong about, that she wasn't as selfish as he claimed, but she eventually believed his opinion of her anyway! "Maybe I AM that woman" and "Maybe he's right about me." UGH. I've always been a firm believer that if you're not mature enough to know yourself, then you're not mature enough to flirt and get married. PLEASE, GIRL, DEVELOP YOURSELF FIRST. AND GROW A SPINE WHILE YOURE AT IT. And maybe a bit of intellect. Because I simply can't believe she said something like "Oh you can touch me if you just dont meddle with Brentley and Philippa", when they were in the ruins. SERIOUSLY??? GIRL HAVE SOME SELF RESPECT. And immediately after she promised herself that she would never be alone with Wright again, she deliberately talked to him behind the bushes, in the gardens, alone. ALONE. WHEN SHE JUST SAID THAT SHE WOULDN'T BE ALONE WITH HIM AGAIN. 
 Ugh. The characterisation in this book is just horrible and inconsistent. Philippa was supposed to be the CLEVER one, but she went on and got herself knocked up and had to elope. And Wright and Eliza were later on presented as UNselfish, but their actions even by the end of the book suggest otherwise. I'm also not entirely convinced that Wright fell in love with her, because it seemed out of the blue; he never gave any indication that he felt something deeper than lust for her until the moment he asked her if she could love him. I can forgive that, though, since it's just a novella, but I can damn sure not forgive the book's other faults. 
 If you're insulted or hurt by this review, then I'm sorry, but all I can feel right now is this: