Finished Maiden Bride. I knew before I started it that the hero was going to bother me, and that I was going to get very angry, but I was right in trusting Simmons to pull it off.

I must admit I hated the first part. I usually keep a Post-it note on the first page of a book to write down my thoughts as I read, and my comments for that part are "What a jerk! He'd better grovel good!" and "Why the hell does he blame her! What does she have to do with her uncle? Feeble minded idiot!". Gillian didn't fare much better: "WTF? She's attracted to this imbecile why? TSTL." Even Edith irritated me: "That stupid hen Edith tries to matchmake because she wants a child to hold on her knee. Blech! Overused and contrived."

But everything starts improving when they start having sex and even more when Gillian falls ill. Nicholas accepts that he's come to care for her without much fighting it, and he just dismisses his thoughts of revenge without torturing himself overmuch. I liked that even when Gillian's supposed brother comes he doesn't kill him. Not quite the epiphany I was hoping for, with Nicholas realizing he shouldn't blame Hexham's family for his sins, but good enough. And the suspense subplot was lightish, so it was ok.

Still, the book still had some problems in this easier to read part. For one, I hated all the baby stuff. First, Nicholas worrying about childbirth out of the blue (it was refreshing that he didn't care about not having a heir, though). Then Gillian going bonkers about wanting a baby. Freak! (Yeah, I'm evil, so what?) And the stupid epilogue... 6 brats? And going for more? Yuck!

To summarize, I enjoyed seeing the jerk that was Nicholas change into a loving husband (even if he never really groveled), and this was good enough that I could like the book in spite of its other problems. A grade of B.