The heroine is a bit of an Amazon, the hero is a tofu entrepreneur. The plot is ridiculous and the pacing is a little slow, but this one isn't nearly as rapetastic as most of the stuff from this period. All in all, this was more fun than I was expecting. ( )

The two main characters, Lacey and Jed, have the potential to be somewhat compelling. Both of them are extremely self-confident and competent in what they do, yet despite their common entrepreneurial flairs have different enough interests and personal styles to create a fun dynamic between them. However, the author, in order to heighten the tension in the love story, keeps them for most of the book from being totally honest with each other about not just what they want of each other but of who they themselves are. So they start off manipulating each other in really catty ways and just keep doing it even after they acknowledge their deep emotional attraction--enough to poison any real relationship, but for Castle, perhaps the more obstacles they have to overcome, the truer a couple's love in the end?

The other really promising thing about this book, which had me really smiling during the first half, was how Castle plays a bit with gender expectations. She makes a point of Lacey's being taller and curvier than your average romance heroine, to the point where she's worried about wearing heels around Jed. In the first sex scene, Jed talks admiringly about how strong Lacey feels in his arms. This is the moment where the power struggle between them really works--when it's just a play in which Lacey gets to growl and pin her man under her.

The power dynamic between the two, however, ironically becomes most poisonous when Lacey eventually does put all her cards on the table. Instead of Jed's recognition of Lacey's strength causing him to respect her agency and say, "Here's what I know that can help you--we'll solve what's threatening you together," he in turn stops telling her about the situation, taking care of it behind her back, letting her see that he's making phone calls but not giving her any idea of the extent to which he is handling the problem that's threatening her own life.

***spoilers really start here, beware! Quick warning: If you don't think that rape threats are acceptable within a romantic relationship, you're probably better off reading the rest of the review than coming within ten miles of the actual book***

At this point, they're at his place. She had gone there originally because she thought it would be a safe place for her to hide. However, now that he's taken the matter out of her hands without telling her that he's got everything under control, she understandably thinks that neither of them is safe there, and her new love for him makes her worry that she's bringing trouble down on his head. Because of Castle's exhausting insistence on their reluctance to communicate with each other, Lacey thinks that the best solution is to slip away in the middle of the night. That's where the novel became actively disturbing to me.

Lacey's stopped by the complicated alarm system that Jed set up around his property, without telling her, to stop the guy who's after her. Jed comes out after her and physically forces her back into the house, saying that she's committed to him now and she has to learn to deal with the consequences of her choices. Lacey is terrified; Jed is furious. Quote: "You're going to stay here, Lacey. You're going to learn to handle the commitment you made to me if I have to lock you up and throw away the key!" (She made this commitment by asking him to help her with her problem and by sleeping with him two or three times.) Another quote, said as he's physically overpowering her and beginning to strip off her clothes: "Remember in the morning that you asked for everything you're getting tonight."

You get the idea. He's about to rape her to show her that she's made herself into his property. However, despite her fear she keeps him talking and eventually it comes out that this reaction is because he Really Truly Loves Her and was terrified to wake up and find her not in bed with him. Lacey's fears melt to tender pity, she comforts him, and they make love gently. I couldn't believe what I was reading.

The ending stretched my incredulity even farther. After this scene, Lacey's problem resolves itself without any more narrative action, and Lacey happily goes home to sell the real estate business she'd set up--to which Castle had earlier devoted an entire chapter in showing how confident, happy, and self-sufficient Lacey is. The only reason she's selling it is that running it in the city isn't compatible with living with Jed, who has his own business a few hours away. In real life, there are a million ways they could both have kept doing what they clearly loved to do, while being together. But in this book, Lacey has to give up her successful career (along with her personal autonomy). At the very end, she finds out that Jed, too, has sold his business so that he could be with her. For Castle, though, this isn't anything so interesting as a Gift of the Magi moment; it's just a touching and funny ending that sends the reconciled lovers into the creation of a new life together, totally from scratch.

I can't remember the last time I read a novel that upset me so viscerally. I guess that's what I get for picking up a random romance at a library sale and hoping for a bit of quick, silly-but-harmless fluff to relax with. ( )