I liked it well enough, but... I don't know. I wanted more.

I was thrilled at the insight into Hart's character. He's the guy I suspected he was (if only his family knew!), but the depth of his emotions, and the decisions he's had to make, were great.

And Eleanor was great. I liked her, and she was a good foil to Hart most of the time (though at other times, she's was oddly easy to play).

But I wanted more.

I felt like there were a lot of things that didn't resonate for me in this book. An example is Hart's first (now deceased) wife Sarah. Apparently, he did very much love her. How, then, does Eleanor fit his life as the woman he's always pined after? Had things with Sarah not gone the way they did, what would have happened? He moved on after Eleanor, had a baby, was potentially happy... How does this jive with Eleanor being the great love of his life? I think the author could have made it work, had she addressed it, but the first marriage was never discussed in any detail, and so to me, it just felt like a gaping hole.

Also, I never really understood their fight. I mean, I sort of got it. (view spoiler)[Eleanor didn't have a problem with the mistress, she had a problem with Hart being exposed as a total control freak. I get that being upsetting, but ... I don't know that it is THAT upsetting. (hide spoiler)] Her reaction was 135 on a scale of 1 to 10. I was left going "seriously? that's it?" Even worse, after all that... (view spoiler)[years and years go by, and she goes back to him, despite the fact that he hasn't changed one bit. She knows he's playing her to get her back. She knows from very early on that he declared he was looking for a wife and the whole family knew he meant for her to be that wife. And she goes along with it anyway! What the hell was the big fight about, then? It just feels like 15 pointlessly wasted years - she was willing to marry the arrogant, controlling man in any case, so why did she break off the engagement the first time around? I was baffled. (hide spoiler)]

I don't know. It was fine, but I wanted more. The whole thing was mildly baffling and... it had a feeling of inevitability that really undermined any tension. I know that's weird to say, because in HR, the hero and heroine ALWAYS get together. But in the good ones, I get stressed about will they/won't they... because sometimes the conflicts seem so tense and huge. This one just plodded along in a pretty straightforward fashion, leaving me wondering why they didn't just get married the first go-round.

*shrug*