#TBRChallenge Reading Update: 100%

 

Chapters 17 - end discussion (spoilers in updates)......................

Oh, maybe not the fairy tale, ever-after sort of love. That didn't exist. He loved her enough to be jealous of her; loved her enough to want to touch her, kiss her, hold her; loved her enough to follow her into the mountains so that he could make sure she was safe. It was more than she'd ever had… or hoped for. "Adventures are dangerous only if you don't have a knight in shining armor standing by," she said softly.

Not fairy tale, ever after sort of love??? Venice is goofed. From here on out, the angst between them is all from Venice thinking, because of how her parent's marriage went, that marriage between her and Noble is doomed to end up with them hating each other. Really used to seeing this from the hero and kind of refreshing that it is the hero here who is constantly spouting the love lines, saying he'll keep fighting for the heroine, and trying to break down her wall.

Venice finally admits that she loves Noble to him and while he is worried that she could get disowned by her dad and friends, he decides to just accept it and, like I said, all the angst/difficulty comes from Venice.

We have some scenes with their Ute guides that doesn't really move away from trite or caricature Native Americans, from speech patterns to not understanding how the white men coddle the woman and other simplistic looks at culture clashes. 

"Trevor hated Juliette. That's why he divorced her." 

"What?" Noble straightened and looked down at the older man in disbelief. "I thought Venice's mother was dead. That she died when Venice was a baby." 

"That's what everyone was supposed to think. That's what Trevor made Venice tell everyone."

So we get this little bomb, Venice's mother didn't die when she was a baby but her dad divorced her. But then just a few minutes later we learn that her mom is dead, she just died when Venice was sixteen. I'm not sure I get why this was written in. It's not a surprise that created any emotional pull from me and then it doesn't really change any thinking or different understanding with Venice's character, she still has the same issue of her parent's marriage being "bad". Very meh on this. 

I don't know if it was how busy I was or if the ending of this did drag but drag it did for me.