Having read several of Catherine Coulter's books before I was looking forward to another great story. Boy, was I wrong! This story was so hard to wade through that I literally had to force myself to read it! I couldn't have cared less about the characters, the writing was stilted (to put it mildly), and references to new characters with no background information were regularly added. Ms. Coulter has written a number of books that were excellent; Mad Jack, The Wild Baron, etc. but this is not one of them. Don't waste your time or your money with The Hellion Bride.