** spoiler alert ** I loved this one! This is my first romance novel to make my favorites category. This book had a lot of mystery and it kept me guessing right up until the end. Larissa married a man who didn't love her, and was not very nice to her. He left for India, and never came back, dying in a ship wreck. Until a year later Hunter shows back up, looking slightly different, but still very much like her husband. He knows things only her husband could know, but there is one major difference in him. He appears to want Lara very much. He is very kind and caring, and nothing like the husband that left her behind. She finds herself very attracted to Hunter, but can't shake the feeling that something is off.



Don't read this part if you have not read the book.


I couldn't put this book down. I read it all morning, then later at a football game, after that at Buffalo Wild Wings, then I stayed up half the night to finish it. I just HAD to know if it really was Hunter, and if it wasn't WHO this guy was. I loved it. It all came together so nicely. I liked the idea of Hunter changing and suddenly loving his wife. But it still didn't really make sense, even after his story about being ship wrecked and losing his memory temporarily. It seemed like even after getting his memory back he would have gone back to the way he always was, and would still be in love with his mistress. So I LOVED that the man who came back in Hunter's place never did all the terrible things to her that Hunter did. Once you find out he is not Hunter and realize that all the interaction she has had with him has always been positive and loving, it makes you like him all that much more. That besides the obvious lying about who he was, their relationship was not tainted with the past indiscretions and hurts caused by her real husband.

I loved the idea that he was so intrigued with her before he even knew her. Looking at her picture (or more accurately her "likeness") and dreaming of being with her. I thought that was sweet. Like when he finally went to England and Lara found out he was at the house waiting for her, she went to her cottage to compose herself, he couldn't wait long enough for her to come to the house, he went to her. I loved that, it was like he couldn't wait one more second to meet her. I did have some questions though. I don't understand how he could know so many details about everyone. Even knowing he read all the real Hunter's journals. I just don't know how he could pull something like that off. For example REAL Hunter didn't really care for Lara very much, so how did fake Hunter know about the freckles on intimate places of her body, or scars. I find it hard to believe that REAL Hunter wrote about those things in journal after going to India. Maybe he would have mentioned stuff like that in his old journals at his Estate in England, but fake Hunter didn't read those until after he had already told her these things. I wish there could have been some clarification on that, just where exactly he got that information or maybe what real Hunter said in his journals regarding those things. That would have made the story a little more believable to me. But really, who cares. I just really loved this book.



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FAVORITE QUOTES


"If you dare touch me or make jest of me, I'll never forgive you. I'll find some way to make you sorry. I'll-"

"My love," Hunter interrupted softly, "you've already made me damned sorry. It's a constant source of regret to me, knowing that if I'd been kind to you all those years ago, I'd be in your arms right now. Instead I'm reduced to bargaining for just one glimpse of you."


~Larissa & Hunter


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This is a quote taken from the book after Hunter got frustrated with Lara constantly pushing him away. He went out drinking with some friends and she waited up for him to come home, worrying that he actually took her advice and went and found his mistress.


"Lonsdale and the other fellows were grinding the wenches on the tables, the floors, against the wall- but I left when all of that started, and came home to you. Do you know why?" Hunter smiled bitterly, as if he were about to tell a dirty joke. "Because I'd rather sit outside your door and moon over you while you sleep in your celibate bed. The mere act of holding your hand, or hearing your voice, ore smelling your perfume is more exciting than bedding a hundred women."


~Hunter