Because You're Mine Book

Uh ... TORTURED hero anyone?!! I'm saying that with a WHOLE LOT of sarcasim if it's not coming across in print! Okay, I know I gave this book 3 stars, but that's only because LK kept "playing" with MY emotions by adeptly keeping my hopes up: About 20 times she had me wanting to throw something at the ... er ... *cough* (so-called) "hero," for pity's sake if not Madeline's ... only to turn around immediately (of course in the nick of time??!) and make me feel all sorry for him ... LIKE HE WAS DOING TO MADELINE!! AAARG!!

"Lisa ... I'm SOOO glad you've ditched this kind of back-and-forth angst beyond reason over the years. This book definitely staked your writing talents and ability to manipulate a readers emotions, but I'd just as soon not be subjected to this "type" of "romance" manipulation again."

Logan Scott is a famous actor of his time in his early 30's (along the lines of a Brad Pitt), and Madeline is a young, aristocratically-born girl of 17-18 years who, in desperation, plans to seek Logan out and have him "ruin" her to avoid an extremely undesirable marriage. Her parents have betrothed her to a man of the peerage in his 50's who, shall we say, is neither dashing nor well-preserved for his age. In fact, he's a loathsome, arrogant toad of a man! Could it be any worse for her?! She skips out on her over-extended stay at school (due to her parents not allowing her to have an "actual" season - husband in place and all)
to carry out her plan. She (of course) never expects to fall in love along the way ... because she's a naive, young girl (what else?!).

Logan has had a rough life, to say the least. He was brought up in an abusive home where he was targeted in particular, while his siblings escaped the wrath of their father and complete neglect of their mother. His father being the steward of a wealthy lord -- he was raised alongside the lord's heir as his playmate and best friend on their estate. As Logan grew up and withdrew from that life, managing against all odds to acquire fame and considerable fortune, he was ever supportive of his friend Andrew who, although privileged, fell into a pattern of considerable debauchery and ruin. Logan never abandoned him despite all the disloyalties Andrew subjected him to, bailing him out both literally and figuratively at every turn. When Logan crosses paths with Madeline ("Maddy") as she takes a job incognito at his successful theatre, he's attracted but completely repels her advances as he does pretty much all women. Needless to say, she grows on him and he eventually comes to trust her. I don't think it's a spoiler to say that she obviously eventually is found out as to her plan of seduction, and Logan finds it yet another deceit in his life he can't bear. He instantly goes into rejection mode with Maddy and puts up all his barriers despite his growing feelings for her.

Logan wasn't just a "tortured hero" in romance for me. I LOVE the tortured hero. But in the long run, I found Logan's (basically "clinical") self-protectiveness to the extreme. What does that mean for me as a reader? It means he rejected our poor undeserving heroine stringently and often ... .WAAAAY too often! Talk about the punishment not fitting the crime! As for our heroine, she was beginning to turn into one of my least favorite Julia Quinn heroines from "The Secret Diaries of Miss Miranda Cheever," referred to me and a few others as "Miss Amazing Doormat"! Maddy could definitely fit that mould right up to around ... oh ... mere pages from the END OF THE BOOK!!

Additionally, even though Logan was so guarded of his feelings where the heroine's indiscretions on her seduction plan were concerned (beyond my personal patience worth for sure), he RIDICULOUSLY kept forgiving his best friend's COMPLETE disregard for his feelings/loyalty beyond reason!! (What the ...?!?) This imbalance on his judgments made absolutely no sense to me in the context of the book. Poor Maddy suffered all his coldness and rejection, and the only thing that saved this book (OVER AND OVER) were LK's ability to constantly play on my emotions and make me feel sorry for Logan at all the EXACT turns of the page. In the end, although I felt sorry for Logan and knew he'd had a rough life ... I felt it was time for him to be the grown man he was and put it in perspective instead of constantly taking it out on Madeline! In other words - GROW UP AND GET OVER IT ALREADY! Sounds cold I know, but all he did was turn himself into a completely self-involved/wallowing in self-pity weakling for me! Not really hero material.

In summary, the book was a weird dichotomy of both liking it for LK's on-going ability to evoke my emotions on cue, but in the end I felt over-manipulated and less than satisfied. By the time the hero came around and Madeline grew a back-bone ... I knew it just wasn't a favorite romance no matter how talented LK can write it. Bottom line: I suppose if your "cuppa" is the tortured beyond reason hero who lashes out at the "ONE" (i.e. the heroine) he loves at every turn ... you'll probably love this book. For me ... as a HUGE fan of LK, glad I read it to add to my overall knowledge of her backlist, but it's definitely not a keeper.
K.