I used to like Catherine's books a long time ago. That was before I met Woodiwiss, Lindsey(of old), Garwood, and McNaught. I recently read this book and wondered what I ever saw in her writing. The female has a very fluent air in her speech while her men talk as if they just learned a new language. It is stunted reading in the dialogue. This particular story had great potential, but it went sour after the third or fourth chapter. I don't know of any reader who enjoys the heroine being forced time after time to have intimacies, and be expected to forgive the hero, if he can be called that. The writing is a 1, but the story line that had potential is a 2. It wasn't until recently that I realized that Coulter uses a lot of violence to get her heroines under control of the male or rather to show the males dominance. Unsatisfying and bitter.