He froze in the middle of ruffling up her skirts. But she couldn’t let him continue without warning him. Once he took her virginity, he’d have to marry her. If she wanted her gamble to pay off, she needed him to spring the trap.

“Yes, you will.” Caro cradled Bexley’s cheeks between her hands, drawing his eyes up. Nothing’s changed.” He reached around and picked the knot at the small of her back, his fingers clumsy on the strings. I also didn't like how she manipulated Adam's sense of honor to push him towards marriage.īexley broke away again, breathing more heavily now. Was Caroline in the wrong for pursuing Adam for his money and title? Absolutely. But they grow closer and end up having sex. If he were a woman, he’d want to marry the heir to a dukedom, too.Įarly into their relationship Adam sees and understands that Caroline is a fortune hunter and decides to avoid her. How could he blame her for a bit of ambition? For wanting to marry well and live comfortably? He’d never resented husband-hunting debutantes or their scheming mamas. Once she sees Adam is interested, she decides to pursue him for his money and title. Adam is the Earl of Bexley and is going to inherit dukedom in the future. It was a lose-lose relationship.Ĭaroline is a 17-year-old daughter of an impoverished viscount who needs to marry well to look after her and her younger brother. The heroine manipulates the hero in the first half of the book and the hero becomes bitter and acts as an asshole towards her in the second half. Between the two of them, I don't know which one is worse. I'll put aside the pacing and writing issues and just focus on the one thing that bothered me the most while reading the book: the entire relationship between the hero and the heroine. The same thing happened in The Young Blood as well, but the main characters were charming enough that I could overlook the bad pacing and other problems with the plot. Like I said, too many things happening at once. A scheming heroine and the hero who sees through it all but still somehow ends up being manipulated? Conflict between hero and his best friend over the said disappearance The disappearance of hero's younger sister Controlling, abusive villain of a father Infidelity and incest between secondary characters Conflicts are resolved way too quickly or not dealt with at all. Major plot points are introduced, not explored and discarded without giving them any depth and as a result, most of the novel felt very flimsy and rushed. The problem I have with Erin Satie's writing is that there's way too much stuff going on in her books.

The Secret Heart by Erin Satie