A Lady Awakened was my first Cecilia Grant book and most probably my last. To put it bluntly, this was just mediocre at best, and painfully boring at worst. 
 I have three main issues with it: 
 First, the writing style was verbose and confusing. I was surprised to find it reminiscent of the stream of consciousness style of narration, which, for me, would be a very odd style to employ in writing a romance novel. I think this was the first time I encountered this in Romancelandia. I don't know what effect it was supposed to have, but it did not go well. It was just... weird. 
 For example, there were so many passages like this: 
 Oh, for God's sake. He was a disgrace to whoredom. To stud-animaldom as well. What bull ever felt a moment of concern for whether the cow actually desired him? Quickly he moved into position. Put a hand down to brace himself. Filled his lungs again. And with one mighty push, he was in. Mere mechanics would take care of the rest. Enough times in and out would get him there. Her tight grip on him--had he ever been so exquisitely sheathed?--might get him there even sooner. 
 She ought to touch him, though. Her right arm lay slack on the mattress; her left bent to keep that fist at her shoulder. "Can you put your hands on me?" he said in a hoarse whisper. Hark at him, asking politely when the occasion called for command. 
 Imagine a whole book filled with interior monologues like that. Ugh, no. 
 Second, the characters were flat, uninspiring and annoying. This held true especially for Martha. Dear Lord. She was so dour and grave most of the time that I failed to connect to her. Can you believe she said things like "Please get on with it already" during her first time with Theo? God. Girl, you don't do that. 
 At least Theo was kind of interesting. But aside from him, the others in the novel had personalities of a dust pan. Meh. 
 Third, there was no chemistry between the leads, and the sex scenes were so cringeworthy and awkward. Yeah, I blame the heroine for this one. Like I said, she was just so hard to put up with I actually felt bad for Theo. I don't even know how he managed to get turned on when she was such a bitch most of the time. 
 Honestly, I was so relieved to finish this book. I don't think I could stomach Martha and the horrible writing for another minute. Good riddance, Martha.