Why do I always feel like I'm doing something wrong when I read a bodice-ripper and need to explain myself? It's madness! For they are so much fun, and Samantha James has become a favorite of mine in the genre, ever since I've read "A Perfect Bride". I love her heroes, even if there are (many) times I wish I could just get inside the book and slap their handsome faces over and over until my hands bleed; and her heroines are usualy such sweet, innocent, kind-hearted souls lost in the world you just want to take home an take care of - Gabriel and Cassie certainly qualify for this, for they are both damaged goods. While Gabriel has daddy issues, Cassie has mommy issues and as a result he is cruel with those who make an atempt to reach his heart, and she thinks she's a nobody, a nothing. He's that kind of hero that you love to hate and hate to love, for he's always doing something he shouldn't to Cassie, and then the reader is reminded he has so many demons and reasons to be cruel, which does not excuse the fact he choses the wrong target for his fury all the time and it's heartbreaking...I kept asking myself how can he say and/or do this, when Cassie just tries to please him? To love him? To be loved? How can he hurt her so? How can he not see she's afraid? How, for pity's sake, he does not see he's doing to her what his father did to his mother (the reason why he's bitter and cruel!!)? Amazingly, this was probably the main reason why I loved this book, I like how it enfuriated me over and over, just to melt me in the next scene; how my heart would become this tight little thing with every "bad" scene and then would instantly grew wider and wider whenever a good scene came up again - call me crazy. ( )