This was a difficult book to grade. I enjoyed it at times, but there were plenty of things that bothered me.

First of all, I'm not fond of the type of relationship were the hero constantly patronizes the heroine, and I felt that very often Duncan treated Madelyne like a child. There were many instances where he thought, "ok, I'll lay down the law here". I also dislike books where court intrigue is given an important role, and this happened during the ending (also about the ending, that final confrontation was terribly superfluous and out of place). Finally, I had some trouble with the writing style. I'm not a fan of purple, overblown prose, but Garwood's style felt too simplistic. I guess some people would consider it sparce and elegant, but for me it felt a little childlike.

But there were a couple of things I liked. Duncan was very quick to admit his love for Madelyne and to accept that she was right in many of the things she defied him about. The character of Madelyne was problematic for me: she was definitely not TSTL, but she was too much of an innocent for me to completely like. However, I appreciated that she showed great courage throughout the whole book, never engaging in stupid, pointless defiance and some of her excentricities were endearing.

I'll give this book a grade of B. I don't regret reading it, but I think I can safely conclude that Garwood is not the author for me.