WhiskeyintheJar Romance

I read a lot of romance and I've read a lot of romance from the '70 and '80s so when I began hearing of a "secret" that was throwing everyone into a frenzy in this story, my imagination went wild. I'm going to put what I was imagining in spoiler tags so as not to ruin anything people who haven't read the book may be imagining.

So, because my shock has been weathered down due to my gluttony in this genre, I got to the secret and ended up not being disturbed horribly one way or the other. This is the genre of marrying because of wills and decades old blood feuds! I don't think the secret here was too crazy but I do understand how people left with a negative vibe from this book.

I was quite a fan of the first 80% of this book as I really enjoyed Iris and Richard's dialogue; they had a wonderful teasing and playful flow. I also think this had a very grown-up feel to it, meaning this is not a puppies and rainbows romance. There was a realistic and realness feeling of how two people who have just meet fall in love. Butterflies, nervousness, awkwardness, and tempered excitement all color Iris and Richard's interactions, I found myself feeling hopeful for them. This is no two hot people have the hots for each other but a view into the learning of one another, it was all sweetly real.

As to Richard not being truthful as to why he wanted to marry Iris, I didn't have a huge problem with it because like I said, I've cut my teeth on the revenge marriages of the '70s. What I did have a problem with was how all the characters suddenly turned very vitriol, really quite nasty. I understand that Iris was upset and felt betrayed and that led to her snappiness and coldness and Richard's barking of orders and general a-holeness was because of the stress of lying and trying to make things work out but all this anger and hate came at the last 20% or so. I can handle our leads being at odds in the beginning but at the end I like my couples to have figured it out and be growing emotionally and sexually closer. The switching of gears and flip flopped feeling left much to be desired for me, not to mention the very rushed ending.

I will say, this was my favorite from the series. I was just about to give up on Julia Quinn but the dialogue and interaction between Richard and Iris in the beginning has me on board for reading her next book.