Karla B. (gaslight) - , reviewed on 6/30/2010 + 145 more book reviews

Helpful Score: 1

Really enjoyed this book. The protagonists are sweet with not too many harsh edges around them. While I prefer the darker stuff of the old romances, when I'm in the mood for something light and pleasant, books like this are a nice and quick change of pace that don't overstay their welcome or overdo it on the "happy-happy."

I particularly liked Ariana, the actress who has no illusions about how actresses are viewed by society and isn't uptight about being respectable & trying to convert opinion. It's Jack who is more conscious of her reputation, and her admonition to him that if he's seen going into her room, it's only what they expect of her profession fit in with her character. She's worldly-wise, due to her mother's own looseness and her own uncertain paternity. She's the bastard get of some unknown gentleman, and she accepts it as the harsh times dictated.

The hero, Jack, is the more uptight one in the relationship, dealing as he has to with his mother's infatuation with a callous nobleman and her willingness to have her family be said nobleman's doormat. He also suffers from PTSD, caused by the siege of Badajoz, and it crops up at convenient plot points. He conquers it a little too cleanly, but whatever. It was a nice depth of character for him to seek therapy in his artwork, and how his healing and his love for Ariana blossom on canvas as well as in real life.

This is the first Gaston I've read, and I'm looking forward to reading more.

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