Beanbag Love

This is a solid Lorraine Heath story. Angsty, romantic, poignant, and funny in some places. A great hero and a very likable heroine are hallmarks of my favorite Heath books and they're definitely here.

A couple of things keep this from being a five star. First, the villain is a crazy ass mofo. I get a little tired of the crazy greedy guy villain in historicals. Kind of two-dimensional and really overdone. I don't know what else could have been the motivation, but I'm definitely open to other possibilities. And the other thing that bugged me was a seriously TSTL moment for the heroine that was completely unnecessary. She decides to go out for a ride on horseback...unaccompanied ... in the countryside ... knowing she's probably pregnant ... at MIDNIGHT! I can't even believe Heath wrote something so incredibly unbelievable. It's just a short moment, but what it leads to could have been accomplished without creating such a ridiculous premise. I'm sorry, but the Mary we met in this book would not do that. It's too moronic. Okay, enough belaboring because it really is pretty much a blip, but it bugged me because it's so outside of what I expect from Heath that it stuck in my craw.

Sebastian is a damaged war veteran whose life has been unbelievably tragic. My heart absolutely broke for him so many times. Mary was so perfect for him and I loved her loyalty to the brothers and especially to Sebastian.

I look forward to the next books in the series, although they promise to be very angsty and difficult. Especially Rafe's. Kinda scared about that one even as I can't wait to read it.

I'm a Lorraine Heath fan. She's got a few duds in her backlist (as most authors with this many books to their credit do) but, for the most part, she's a good, reliable story teller.

ETA: Hahaha! I'm an idiot! I ended up spoiler tagging half of my review. Fixed now.