Review

I really loved this series, but for some reason this book didn’t quite hit the mark for me.

Adam, as a hero, fell a bit flat. He’s pushy, stubborn and does what he thinks is best regardless of the other party’s opinion. As the book carried on I didn’t feel like he learned anything, except that there were still ways to get ones way. He did learn a bit about communicating I guess, though I don’t know if that’s really part of his redemption. 

The woman he seeks to redeem, Faith, is a good heroine. She’s loyal, steadfast and tends to fall on the practical side of things. She’s also extremely self-less, rarely did she do things that would result in her own elevation and more often she sought to protect those she cared about.

After re-reading my review thus far I find that in my opinion is Adam didn’t deserve Faith. He did too many things that would make me want to hit a man, and they couldn’t be deemed alpha male traits. There was also a suspense plot that wrapped up a bit tidy, and compared to the previous books of the series the villain fell a bit flat, odious for sure, but not nearly as evil as some of the others.

Pacing and plot were on at times and off at others, though I was extremely happy with the slow-building intimacy between Adam and Faith. The secondary characters did rule the day in this book, and Callen wrapped up each of their stories so we probably won’t get more of them in the future. In fact, I became greatly enamored with Adam’s best friend and his younger sister, Sophia who had romance drama encircling them. Also, Adam’s Aunt Theodosia is a hoot.

Overall, this is probably the first duke I haven’t enjoyed in a long while, which is a bit of a letdown, but the secondary cast and heroine made up for Adam’s failures. By far this won’t be my last Callen book either.

Reviewed by Landra