Major Westhaven's Unwilling Ward by Emily BascomMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
‘You…are the best man I know. She will need a guardian. Please, promise me you will do as you said and care for her—watch over her. Find her…a husband. It pains me to ask…but I am all she has, and without me…’
March's theme for the #TBRChallenge was grumpy, and since I love me some grump, I had a plethora of choices. I went with this book that has been in my tbr since 2009, the synopsis was this: Lily is horrified to learn her late brother has placed her under the guardianship of brooding Major Daniel Westhaven! He's insufferably rude and arrogant, and clearly disapproves of her—so why does Lily find herself longing for his touch?
Battle-scarred Daniel wants nothing to do with society, and intends to swiftly fulfill his promise and find troublesome Lily a husband. Only, she brings light into his dark life—and his even darker heart. But surely a beauty like Lily would never choose a beast like him….
Insufferably rude! Wants nothing to do with society! His dark life and his even darker heart! I pegged this guy to give good grump and for the most part, he did.
This starts off in South Carolina where Major Daniel Westhaven is battling the uncouth, upstart colonists in 1781. He's alongside his friend Pevensey and as they both lay there in the aftermath of battle, Pevensey reminds Daniel of his promise to see to the care of Pevensey's sister Lily if anything should happen to Pevensey. Daniel is also injured, not sure he is even going to make it but grants Pevensey his dying wish to promise to be guardian to Lily. We then zoom almost a year and meet Lily who has just learned that the cousin who inherited the house she lives in after her brother's death, plans on selling it. Lily decides it's time to turn the charm on and find herself a husband, even though the last couple months a mysterious benefactor has been sending her money to live on.
At the ball Lily is working her magic and with some rumors of wealthy guardian helping her out, Charles Denham, a wastrel son waiting to inherit, is starting to sniff around Lily. Lily makes eye contact with a tall, dark, brooding man and can't believe how rude he is with his staring. It's all very P & P with Daniel thinking Lily is spoiled and empty headed because of how she flirts and Lily overhearing Daniel calling her vacant. They're snippy to each other with these misunderstandings until around the 40% mark where they start to thaw as they get to know one another better. With Lily learning that Daniel is her benefactor, she goes back to his home to stay with him where there's a kiss in the rain that didn't really make sense with where it was timed in the story, Lily gets a fever that softens Daniel even more towards her, and the reader learns that Daniel lost his leg from the knee down in the war.
The second half has Lily not feeling worldly enough for Daniel and Daniel not wanting to take advantage of the situation because he is her source of security (Yay for him recognizing this!) but mostly, him not feeling worthy because part of his leg is gone. His insecurity with his leg I could go along with but there was this constant him not feeling good enough to step into his father's shoes as the Viscount because he wasn't as good a man as his father. Daniel came from a loving home and the author just didn't do a good enough job explaining or making me believe why Daniel went on and on about this.
Sidenote: Daniel's highwayman turned Lord daddy and his mother's romance sounded fascinating, so I checked to see if they had their own book and surprise!they do, it's first in this Westhaven series. Kind of shocking because, usually, author's don't kill off the main romance couple from book 1 in book 2.
We get a friend of Daniel's showing up that was good series baiting (and maybe it's the books I've been reading lately but I thought I sensed some sexual tension between Daniel and Captain Connor O'Flaherty??), a secret waltz, and Charles Dunham showing back to bring some havoc with a drugging and kidnapping. The last 20% really brings in the head-scratching daddy issues, Lily being sent away, then learning about Daniel's insecurity, and then I love yous for an ending sex scene. Daniel was a mildly seasoned grump, so a passing grade.
I think that having most of the action and twists happen all in the last fifth of the book would probably bother me more than the daddy issues.
ReplyDeleteNot having read it, I'm going to hazard that I could tolerate the hero's "I'm not good enough to fill Daddy's shoes", and chalk it up to daddy having been indeed a good, loving, capable, etc etc sort, especially if the death of the parents is sudden (say, accident), and Daniel's reaction to losing his leg and the horrors of war (seeing his best friend die before his eyes, etc), it would all contribute to PTSD and depression manifesting in, "I'm not worthy/good enough".
I almost feel conditioned to accept that last ending action because it happens so often. It does bother me when there isn't enough time to work through the emotions from the action, though.
DeleteThe compounding of those two things definitely makes sense to make him feel unworthy but because of the page count and everything else, Lily's story, the building romance, relaying story, the daddy issues was the most left to side and we don't really learn about who his dad was to him. With everything else, it just felt unnecessary, more annoying than adding for me. Maybe if I had read the dad's story I would feel different.
See, this is why I tend to prefer longer stories: if you are going to put all that stuff in, it needs space to happen, for the characters to feel what they feel and come to terms with it, and so on.
Delete"needs space to happen"
DeleteYes! I feel like this is a top 3 complaint of mine. It has to do with the depth of emotion I'm looking for.
It feels as if there are too many things in the story. From your words, it sounds as if it's a little confusing.
ReplyDeleteI don't mind martyrs in romances but if they don't change their minds in a believable manner, it can sound silly.
Yes! That's the way I felt anyway, the dad issues should have been left out or maybe, as Azteclady mentioned, have them rolled in with his PTSD, sadness over the loss but separating them out and then having his war injury both things he had to get over, there just wasn't page count for it.
DeleteMartyrs must grow up/out of martyrdom for me to believe in any sort of long term happiness, for sure.
DeleteMartyrs, oh the book club discussions over this I've had! I think I maybe come down harder on them because I get irritated how women are expected to be them more and then sometimes in stories, in certain situations, they are supposed to get more sympathy for choices they are freely making or more leeway for their hurtful words because they're doing martyr-y things.
DeleteHarper definitely had some slight bad attitude about her little bit of martyring.
I don't mind a good martyr story because I feel I might have been one in similar context as of those in some books. The way I see it, sometimes those emotions and feelings aren't easy to rationalize, but in a fictional romance of course we - I - expect the HEA to win over any issue.
DeleteSeeing yourself in stories does have a therapeutic feeling and why having diversity and variety is so important. Reading a character and their choices that you have a connection to getting their HEA is the best feeling in the world :)
DeleteOnly a mildly seasoned grump! Oh no!
ReplyDeleteLol. As a Midwesterner and frequent bringer of my own hot sauce to family gatherings, he'd be seasoned just right for that kind of palate ;)
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