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 2.5 I'm-really-getting-tired-of-this stars 
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 This really should have been titled 'Taming of the Shrew- Part II' 
 Too harsh? How about this: 
 Well this sucks. Another McNaught favorite among many that I did not love. I feel like I should put out a disclaimer or apologize to my GR friends for clogging up your feeds with my negative reviews & low ratings as of late. I promise you I'm NOT doing it on purpose. I'm not one of those reviewers. I've been in a serious book funk that seems to have no end. Nothing is working for me. I pulled this out of my 'emergency' pile in hopes it would pull me out of it but no such luck. *sigh* Go figure. 
 This started out promising. The hero Royce Westmoreland was everything fierce, aggressive, alpha and intimidating that I enjoy. I was not a fan of the slapping incident but he slowly redeemed himself. The whole "falling in love with my captured enemy" was right down my alley of fun. But the heroine Jennifer Merrick and staggered plot made the whole experience quite torturous. 
 Oh Moses this girl holds a grudge like a dog with a bone. Jesus. I kept having to remind myself that Jenny is only a 17 year-old sheltered girl but still, with that age and her attitude...she took a lot of arrogant liberties and quick to believe misassumptions that made me wish someone would slap some sense and humility into her. And by the way, what woman in 1400s Scotland would have a modern English name like Jennifer? I mean..Jennifer? Come on. I googled it and it dates back only to the 20th Century. So uh...WTH? This was a huge gaffe and made me wish the author picked another more accurate name appropriate to the time period. Or one that isn't so ridiculously out of place. It stuck out like a sore thumb. Moving on... 
 This was literally a Tudor version of Paradise, just switch out the names, setting and era. I've noticed that Judith McNaught likes to stick to a certain formula and plug it into every story no matter the genre. That's fine since she exceeds at writing tortured conflicted multi-layered characters I can overlook it but I'd like a little more variety is all I'm saying. Do both leads HAVE to be strong willed and obsessively obstinate? The endless misunderstandings, arguing, vicious hate just piled on top of each other like an angry agitated ant hill. Here emotions and feelings swing like a pendulum and are so mercurial that you never know what you are going to get in the next 5 pages. 
 You literally are holding your breath waiting for the next explosion and the small baby steps the couple have taken just disintegrate and we are back at square one. Where's the actual relationship development? The character growth? If you are constantly hurdling obstacles at the couple every few pages there is little room for actual growth and development. For me at least that's what it felt like here. Jenny's surprise revelation that she loves Royce came out of nowhere considering she tried everything to get away from him but the minute she finds out he did in fact want to marry her *gasp* She loves him!!!......Huh? The momentum and pacing is complete crap IMO. The couple do get a few moments of levity but it was all surface because both the reader and characters are fully aware that it will all fall apart very soon. The number of times and dramatic shifts from hate to love to hate again is just crazy. 
 I just wished Judith would have let this couple be for a little while. Same grievances I had with Paradise I ran into in here, the amount of anxiety, anger, and frustration I experienced while reading this just colored my opinion of the whole story and unfortunately the characters too. When the couple finally reached their HEA I felt totally indifferent and not really caring. I mean it was nice and sure Jenny's gesture was sweet but it didn't wow me, I just felt numb. Like 100 pages too late honey... 
 I kept questioning was the payoff worth it? Jury's still out. I'm not sure if the heroine's groveling and humbling herself in the VERY last chapter was worth the ridiculous amount of strife and misery the hero, the couple and the readers are put through. It wasn't worth it for me. I mean it wasn't enough for Royce and Jenny to endlessly run into problems and constant misunderstandings and manipulations by outside forces, but the needless death of Jenny's stepbrother William in the last 100 pages used as another source of contention between the two was just too much. Was this really necessary? The knife incident just threw me over the edge and I checked out mentally after that. Jenny crucifying Royce and refusing to believe his innocence was the final straw that broke the camel's back for me. This made my blood boil and stressed me the HELL out. I mean she pulled a damn knife on him. And this is just mere days after discovering she loves her husband and claiming to trust him. Yet she draws a knife on him in vengeance? Really?! That's not love. Not my definition of it at least. I can't and won't overlook that. This had too many shades of an unhealthy, unstable, volatile relationship that won't last long. What got under my skin was that Jennifer didn't even hesitate or bother to ask Royce what happened. Instead she's quick to pounce on the man she supposedly "loves" and attacks him with a knife with zero hesitation. 
 Bitch GOODBYE. I don't care if it was a family member she was grieving over you don't attack or try to kill a person you love without demanding an explanation first. It's disgusting, needless and not my cup of tea. And if that wasn't enough brutal misery, her choosing to publicly humiliate her husband and turn her back on her new countrymen to sit with her manipulative scheming family and clansmen made me seethe. The amount of prideful arrogance this girl has is enough to choke a horse. It wasn't enough to publicly scorn Royce as a murderer but you have to cut him at the knees too in front of 2 countries because you think it's your duty? 
 The amount of times this girl continuously martyrs herself for her heartless vile selfish father and hateful clansmen was unbearable. I get why she was always looking for her father's love and approval but her blindness to his shortcomings and refusing to believe her people were capable of any wrong doing was so naive it just veered into TSTL in some instances. Especially when Royce gingerly brought up the truth about her father's underhanded scheme to secretly take her away to an Abbey after the marriage without asking Jenny. She doesn't think he's capable of it, oh no her father would NEVER take her choices away from her. 
 The same man who carted her butt off to an Abbey for 2 years straight to cure her 'hellion' ways and didn't bother to visit her isn't capable of this? Really? RME. Okie dokie. I tried to sympathize with her but there was little room for me to even do that because of her prideful attitude & stubborn idiotic ways. And the stunt her father and Malcolm pull at the tournament just made me wish they would all get trampled. This was the first book where I loathed the Scottish characters and was rooting for the English, pillaging and snobbery and all. Usually the roles of hero and villain are reverse when it comes to this historic rivalry. I appreciated that JM went a different route. There are villains on both sides and a lot of animonsity which I found accurate. I just was hoping to get something a little more along the lines of The Raider or Perfect same idea of captive falls in love with his captor and sworn enemies thing. But the balances in there were way better. I guess I am a little softhearted when it comes to angsty stories after all, and I love angst! But not this kind. I just can't stand a book packed with vicious attacks, name calling and scathing retorts. That can only go so far. 
 The thing about McNaught I'm coming to realize is that she likes to test emotional boundaries and put readers in an uneasy mindset with the constant ups and downs all the way to the very end. I can appreciate that..up to a certain point. I had a handful of her HR on my TR list but now...if it's the same dynamic & same outcome in every book I'm not sure it's for me. I need more satisfaction, conviction and payoff in my readings. And ones that don't make me feel like absolute shit while reading it. And most importantly characters I don't want to physically strangle. Life is stressful enough yo. 
 My dear Goodreads friend who are avid JM fans: help me out! Is this pretty much what we get as far as characterizations in all her books? Please do share!