My Lord Protector by Deborah Hale

Torn between duty... and desire... Edmund Fitzhugh was willing to thrust his head back into the matrimonial noose to protect Julianna from her wicked stepbrother. But the maiden was betrothed to his nephew, gone to sea. So their forbidden union was secretly a marriage in name only. Yet sharing his home with the much younger beauty fueled a passion he'd thought long buried... 

Julianna Ramsey was at sixes and sevens! Who would have thought that Edmund's gentle care could ignite in her a woman's ardor that far eclipsed her girlish fancy for his absent nephew? And what of the day when her fiancé would return? Would she then have the courage to choose love over duty?
   
I remember loving this when I first read it a few years ago and being very annoyed with myself when I found out it had been put in the second hand shop bag. So no book. And what did I have to do? Buy it again from Ebay and have it shipped from the States. One heck of an expensive mistake. So what do you learn from my little tale? Don't go putting books into a second hand shop bag until you are absolutely SURE you don't want it anymore. 


Anyway, like I was saying. I remember loving this book but now it seems to just miss the mark for me. 


Edmund - our hero - is described as being strong and yet his actions seem to contradict this. It is like we are trying to be made to believe that this man is something when he isn't. Don't get me wrong, he is not a complete weakling (he was a sea captain) but at some points where some kind of action would have been acceptable from him he did nothing...


Julianna is strong and sure of herself and refuses to be bullied into doing things that she doesn't want to. And yet, this is again a contradiction as she lives in fear of her step-brother who has walked all over her...


(evil cousin or step-brother is traditional really isn't it)


I don't know. It's a tad confusing character wise....


Great for a little read to take up a night and get a little romantic fix.