His for Revenge by Caitlin Crews

 

Caitlin Crews is one of my new favorite Harlequin authors. I like her no-nonsense heroines, and better yet, she seems to write a blend of virginal heroines (more traditional) and sexually experienced heroines. I don't mind either, but it's nice to mix it up and I appreciate that the author does this because I know some readers push back against heroines having experience with anyone other than the hero and I, for one, appreciate the novelty.

HIS FOR REVENGE is a pretty decent book. The heroine, Zara, is forced to marry the hero, Chase, because her father wants a controlling stake in the hero's business. Initially the hero was supposed to marry the heroine's older sister, Ariella, but she flaked. Zara is curvy and shy and has been emotionally abused her whole life by her dad and sister into thinking she's fat and ugly, which is really sad.

I liked that the heroine was sexually experienced and took the initiative. There's this hot moment when he's watching her in the bath before they consummate the marriage and she's like TAKE A LONG LOOK BUB BECAUSE I'M NOT GOING TO APOLOGIZE FOR THIS before, like, standing and giving him a view. When they do it, and he tells her to "come here" she actually gets on top of the dining table and crawls to him, which I found absolutely hilarious and extra in the best way.

The hero I could take or leave. I liked Hugo in UNDONE BY THE BILLIONAIRE DUKE better because he was one of those players-with-daddy-issues and I'm a sucker for that, since it's like a modern-day version of the duke of slut. Chase was kind of just a grumpy jerk. But it wasn't even the good kind of grumpy jerk. He felt very Chad Basic(TM). His backstory was great, though, and I could see why he had all of those layers of emotional remove. Poor guy.

Regarding the story, eh. The title is a little misleading because it's not the revenge wedding story I was hoping for. I also felt that there wasn't all that much of an emotional connection between the H and the h. BILLIONAIRE DUKE did so much more with way less, so this was a bit of a disappointment. It did have the gothic elements I'm starting to expect from this author's work though. The hero lives in a house named Greenleigh and the heroine is actually writing her Master's thesis on Gothic romance novels (I burn, I pine, I-- you get the idea). It's also set around Christmas, for those of you xmas mood-readers.

Overall, this felt kind of one-and-done to me but I really did like a lot of things about it.

2.5 to 3 out of 5 stars