Raphael Rafe Locke, apuesto heredero de un ducado, dueño de una riqueza sin igual y perseguido por todas las jóvenes de Inglaterra, prefiere cazar a ser cazado. Detesta a Ophelia Reid, hija de un conde, apenas la conoce, porque la hermosa joven, que le parece una trepadora social, flirtea con él descaradamente. Cuando luego la encuentra llorando y la consuela entre sus brazos, empieza a pensar que quizás no sea tan mala después de todo. Cuando un amigo declara que Ophelia nunca llegara a ser más que una bonita arpía, pero arpía al fin, Rafel se compromete a tratar de hacer de ella una gentil dama que un día encontrará al hombre adecuado y sentará cabeza. Con permiso de los padres de Ophelia, cuya mayor ambición es ascender en la escala social, Rafe lleva a Ophelia y a su chaperona a una de sus propiedades en la campiña. Ophelia está furiosa y desconfía de los motivos de él, que no cesa de señalarle sus errores. Rafe descubrirá las razones del mal comportamiento de Ophelia, mientras esta se irá convirtiendo poco a poco en la dama que debe ser. Una vez "enderezada", Rafe la reintroduce en la alta sociedad londinense. Mientras Ophelia cosecha una propuesta de matrimonio tras otra, Rafa se da cuenta, quizás demasiado tarde, de que se ha enamorado de ella.

Interesting premise but the nonconsensual sleep sex was not cool. ( )

Great story. I really liked it. I thought it was so sweet. 4 stars. ( )

Great story. I really liked it. I thought it was so sweet. 4 stars. ( )

I really give this one 1 ½ stars. It definitely falls in the cheesetastic category. It’s been awhile since I’ve given any romance novel less than a two stars since I expect the cheese and lame plot lines by now, so I feel like I have to explain myself.

Ophelia Reid, the heroine, was damn hard to like. I was surprised her name wasn’t Narcissa due to her constant reminders of how beautiful she was and how hard it was to make friends due to her beauty. Ugh, really? I’m already reminded of how subpar I am compared to the celebrities and supermodels prancing around their perfectly tanned bodies in tiny bikinis on every media outlet available. I don’t need it in my reading. Plus, I’ve never been so beautiful that both men and women are afraid to approach me, so sorry I can’t sympathize with you Ophelia. Did you ever stop to think it could be that charmingly conceited personality of yours that throws people off? The author tried to justify Ophelia’s thinking by explaining that her overambitious rich father paid children to be her friends and made her into a “bauble” of sorts to further his career. But it was just too much of a stretch for me to believe or even sympathize.

Raphael Locke, our brave hero who sets out to teach our conceited heroine how her behavior towards others is appaling, is also unlikeable. His scheme is to essentially kidnap Ophelia and take her to his isolated countryside estate to teach her manners, because someone has too and he’s the man for the job. Besides being the best friend of MacTavish it’s not really explained why Rafe feels that he needs to fulfill this role. Of course a bunch of cheesy things occur leading Rafe and Ophelia to fall for each other. Some of these cheesy things were quite funny and these are the points that I enjoyed hence the ½ star. However, I did not appreciate Rafe using sex as a teaching agent…a way to calm our conceited heroine down. This was another stretch, especially since Ophelia genuinely felt like she needed the sex to calm her down. It seemed like her whole character change occurred because of the sex and not because she actually changed her behavior or really fell in love with Rafe. This was a huge turn off to me since I like my heroines strong.

I don’t know if my not knowing the back story affected my whole take on this book. Apparently, the book before this one, [b:The Heir|412963|The Heir|Johanna Lindsey|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1174519579s/412963.jpg|998931], explains the scandal that leads to Ophelia being hated by every character in this book. You need to read [b:The Heir|412963|The Heir|Johanna Lindsey|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1174519579s/412963.jpg|998931] in order to get the full picture, because the scandal is never fully explained in this book. The reader is given snippets of dialogue through arguments and flashbacks that ensue in the beginning of this book, but you can’t really piece together enough of it to justify the character behavior and actions in this book. I won’t be reading [b:The Heir|412963|The Heir|Johanna Lindsey|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1174519579s/412963.jpg|998931] though, because I just didn’t care enough for these characters.

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