Why is it sometimes I find the older written historical romances better than the latest ones? Flowers from the Storm is a classic. It can do no wrong in my eyes. Even the things I disliked about it, were not enough for me to stop seeing it as a literary beauty. The most irritating thing about the book is Maddy - or rather the religious sect she comes from and the way she speaks. It's very Shakespearean. All "thees and thous and thys"...painstaking in the beginning to decipher, but Christian is much more straight-talking, even if he is a "madman" the majority of the time..and I just loved him. And Maddy, with all her repressed attitude and prim and properness - I guess it made it more exciting to see her become more wanton and "creaturely" (that's how she puts it haha) 
 I loved the romance. 
 I also love how the lead male never recovers to his former glory, and there is a realistic progression of his illness, where he had to relearn everything again (it was almost like he had a stroke.) 
 I actually read this book about two months ago, reached the halfway point, but for some reason never continued or came back...until now. And it was only when I started rereading from the beginning, I was like *squinting* I've read this before...how could I have let it escape my clutches?! What possibly happened in my life for me to forget to return?! 
 If I had a list of my top ten favourite historical romances - I think this would rank number 2. Straight after "A Kingdom of Dreams" by Judith McNaught.