Kat Welch
I really appreciate Carla Kelly's character work and dialogue. This story is tougher than most of the other's I've read of hers. The heroine is a widow and lost her young son to starvation. As a parent this made for difficult read when I got to how she both described it AND when she references it later in the book.
I absolutely loved this book up until the 3rd act break up. The admiral discovers that her husband had been involved with a terrible tragedy that affected enlisted men. While her husband had not been responsible for the tragedy he was found guilty of causing it. The admiral believes the heroine manipulated him and hid her husband's crimes from him and the rest of the world. In his anger he throws a glass paperweight at her. It hits the door behind her and shatters over her head. She takes off after this and writes him a scathing letter detailing the death of her son and leaves evidence of her husband's innocence.
For me, this would have been the end. I'd have been perfectly happy if she took off never to be seen again and left his man to wallow in self pity. Instead he cuts off the friend that exposed her to him and attempts to get satisfaction for her husband (he is unable to, which, of course, but my HEA needed the actual criminal (a member of the nobility) to pay a price. The admiral tracks her down and she forgives him. Which he did not deserve. At all.
I really appreciate Carla Kelly's character work and dialogue. This story is tougher than most of the other's I've read of hers. The heroine is a widow and lost her young son to starvation. As a parent this made for difficult read when I got to how she both described it AND when she references it later in the book.
I absolutely loved this book up until the 3rd act break up. The admiral discovers that her husband had been involved with a terrible tragedy that affected enlisted men. While her husband had not been responsible for the tragedy he was found guilty of causing it. The admiral believes the heroine manipulated him and hid her husband's crimes from him and the rest of the world. In his anger he throws a glass paperweight at her. It hits the door behind her and shatters over her head. She takes off after this and writes him a scathing letter detailing the death of her son and leaves evidence of her husband's innocence.
For me, this would have been the end. I'd have been perfectly happy if she took off never to be seen again and left his man to wallow in self pity. Instead he cuts off the friend that exposed her to him and attempts to get satisfaction for her husband (he is unable to, which, of course, but my HEA needed the actual criminal (a member of the nobility) to pay a price. The admiral tracks her down and she forgives him. Which he did not deserve. At all.