THE SOLDIER by Grace Burrowes

PUBLISHER: Sourcebooks, 6/2011
SETTING: England
HERO: Devlin St. Just
HEROINE: Emmaline Farnum
MY GRADE: D

SYNOPSIS: Devlin St. Just has tried everything to escape his demons. But his responsibilities are multiplying and his despair deepening, until beautiful, enigmatic neighbor Emmaline Farnum steps in...

Devlin's torn spirit calls to Emmaline, but even as she gives in to his irresistible caresses and her own growing desires, she's keeping a devastating secret...

Protecting Emmaline becomes Devlin's urgent mission, if only he can overcome the forces that are driving them irretrievably apart...

MY THOUGHTS: I didn't enjoy this story from the start. Hero and heroine met way too soon and acted too familiar with each other, as if they'd known each other for years. We didn't get to know them at all beforehand. Both were very likeable and there was chemistry between them from the beginning.

What I didn't like most of all was the character, Winnie. She's a small child, cousin to Emmaline, and is related to Devlin by marriage somehow. She's introduced just a few pages in and dominates the entire storyline. There's hardly a page she's not on in some way, either speaking herself or hero and heroine are speaking about her. I feel her dialogue is much more mature than a real five or six year old would ever speak. She sounds just like an adult most of the time. I also had trouble believing that a grown man of thirty-one would allow a child he's just met, who already has a home, move in with him the night they meet.

The rest of the novel is bland and uninteresting to me. If Winnie hadn't dominated the story, I might have liked it, but who can say? I won't be trying this author again.

I received this from the publisher in 2011 in exchange for an honest review.