I tend to opt for character driven books, it's true. When reading I usually experience an immediate and clear choice of which character I prefer: the heroine or the hero? Occasionally I don't prefer either (Nauti Nights comes to mind here...) In some books, rarely, I like them both. You'll see a pattern, I'm sure, as this equality is often found in my A/favorite books. Gina and Max. Colin and Savitri, Derek and Sarah. Edward and Anna. Caine and Desi. Butch and Vishous (alright, alright). Dain and Jess. When I love the heroine as much as the hero, I know I'm in for a terrific ride. And because I'm attracted to gentlemen who are asses most of the time, I was in for some great, great fun with the Lord of Scoundrels.
Dain the reprobate and colossal idiot with the smart mouth, is everything I need a hero to be. He even has dark hair! Damaged, sexy, smart, misguided, rude, lusty, and such a blustering idiot that I instantly fell for him. What is better fodder for a hero than a hurt, ugly, unloved boy who rises to the occasion through his intelligence, wit, and strength? His mother abandoned him. His father was an unfeeling, stern, evil bastard. He had to gain respect through his fists and his nastiness. Yet he retained his humanity. I mean, seriously, he could have easily been the sociopath in this story, out to rape and kill the heroine because his mommy didn't love him and his daddy didn't care. Instead, we have the redemption story of an utterly imperfect arrogant male getting the rug whipped out from under him, repeatedly, by a smart, fun, practical, beautiful spinster.
You'll want all your strength for the wedding night."
I cannot think why I should need strength," she said, ignoring a host of spine-tingling images rising in her mind's eye. "All I have to do is lie there."
"Naked," he said grimly.
"Truly?" She shot him a glance from under her lashes. "Well, if I must, I must, for you have the advantage of experience in these matters. Still, I do wish you'd told me sooner. I should not have put the modiste to so much trouble about the negligee."
"The what?"
"It was ghastly expensive," she said, "but the silk is as fine as gossamer, and the eyelet work about the neckline is exquisite. Aunt Louisa was horrified. She said only Cyprians wear such things, and it leaves nothing to the imagination."
Jessica heard him suck in his breath, felt the muscular thigh tense against hers.
"But if it were left to Aunt Louisa," she went on,"I should be covered from my chin to my toes in thick cotton ruffled with monstrosities with little bows and rosebuds. Which is absurd, when an evening gown reveals far more, not to mention--"
"What color?" he asked. His low voice had roughened.
"Wine red," she said, "With narrow black ribbons threaded through the neckline. Here." She traced a plunging U over her bosom. "And there's the loveliest openwork over my...well, here." She drew her finger over the curve of her breast a bare inch above the nipple. "And openwork on the right side of the skirt. From here" --she pointed to her hip--"down to the hem. And I bought---"
"Jess." Her name was a strangled whisper.
"--slippers to match," she continued." Black mules with--"
"Jess." In one furious flurry of motion he threw down the reins and hauled her into his lap.
This scene works so well because Dain is trying to frighten the unshakable Jess. I loved her as much as he did. It embarrassing, but I now have a girl crush on both Savitri AND Jess. She's unflappable, even when she shoots him! Because Jess has raised a passel of boys for her aunts and uncles, she instantly recognizes the troublesome and troubled boy inside Dain. Because Jess' family is a bit unusual (her grandmother is a femme fatale) she is aware of her sexual nature in a less than historically predictable way. At any point LOS could have disappointed the hell out of me by going down the typical path of the romance book into misery and hand wringing, inaction and blame and the ever popular BIG misunderstanding. I expected it. Instead, each time, Jessica makes a decision to be smart. She chooses not to accept humiliation for herself OR for Dain. She chooses not to lie to him, not to be lied to, not to allow him to ruin what they have and, glory alleluia , she chooses to let Dain be the best husband and father that he can be. She manages him, and while at first he hates it, he realizes this is actually a great thing and then, he loves it, he grows up, he heals and they get a Happily Ever After that is believable.
Then Dain saw how much trust his wife had placed in him. If she hadn't, she would have come with him, no matter what he said or did. But she trusted....that he'd make the boy feel safe, and make Dominick believe that what he'd been told was true.
Perhaps, Dain thought, his wife knew him a great deal better than he knew himself. She saw in him qualities he'd never discerned when he'd looked into a mirror.
A+. Hearts, bunnies, and sighs.
