I agree that the author could have toned down her superfluous nature just a bit...taken into context, though, the flowery language is really perfect, seeing as how the characters are straight out of Elizabethan England...do we harp on Shakespeare for his overuse of the English language? All in all, I love this book because it is such a romantic story--handsome man is wrongfully accused, beautiful girl is wrongfully kidnapped, both become virtually trapped together inside a crumbling, wintry fortress, much fighting, hilarity and ultimately love ensue--what's not to like? And I always was partial toward the fiesty, hard-headed heroines...none of these simpering, pampered dolls for me. Not a brain-teaser, but a light read that I enjoy over and over again. I said 4 stars, but I'd give it 4 1/2, really.

Woodiwiss has good basic plotlines, likeable characters, and a good moodsetting, but she is way too verbose. It really gets tedious after the first 400 pages of this 650+ page book. It seems like she is trying too hard to demonstrate her excellently fabulous, superfluously educated, bemusingly extensive vocabulary. Who wants to work that hard in their leisuretime? If the reader wants to find out what happens next, she has to sift through eight or more assininely superfluous, extremely bemusing, long descriptive paragraphs to get the the next word in each dialogue. Please. I found myself skipping entire paragraphs, and just reading the dialogue. Had a hard time finishing this one.

I almost did not read this book because of the spotlight reviews. After having read it, I believe the spotlight reviews need to be changed in order to not deter any more people from reading this book. I did not think the wait for Maxim was so horrible. In fact, I really felt the pages with Nicholas flew by. Once Maxim entered the story, things really began to cook though. Absolutely loved the pranks the two pulled on each other. I was almost sad to see them finally fall in love because I enjoyed their hilarious fighting so much. In this book, in particular, I felt that Woodiwiss did a fabulous job aquainting us with the characters. I felt as though I knew them. Please give the book a chance. If reading for fast romance is all you want, then perhaps this book is not for you. But if you enjoy a good story, complete with details on many different topics, I think you will enjoy.

I used to like Kathleen Woodiwiss, when I was 15 and first read "Shanna", which I consider the best of her books...but the rest of her novels in my opinion, truly stink, they are way too clogged with superfluous detail upon detail, and thus take forever to read...the plot is spelled out in excrutiating detail, & drags on and on with descriptions of EVERYTHING before you actually get to any one character's motivations and/or emotions, not to mention interactions between characters -- there is so little of this that her books just stop dead...you are so busy reading these boring bits before you hit anyone even having a conversation! Ms. Woodiwiss really needs to cut out the fat & write a romance novel that hums along, not drags its feet. Having said that about her books in general...THIS book was particularly affected by these qualities, and thus, for me, it dragged on & on, I found myself skipping forward in a desperate effort to find out if the story was actually MOVING. But it never did. What a snooze.

Well.. She is not the best character for Woodiwiss' heroine. Witty, yes. Hot tempered, definettely. Stupid, yes. Spoilt, absolutely.

I just think it would be better if Elise is all of the above but stupid. I can't find a man who would likely besotted to a woman with such a handfull character. Don't believe it in the least that any gentlemen could pass her as charming with situation she created in the story.

Just read it through... It is very disturbing that although I like the story line I could hardly enjoy the main character.

Hmmm