I was torn between giving this one two stars or three because while the plot was boring and for some reason not a mystery at all, the personalities of Ryder and especially Mary were entertaining and interesting. Ryder's father has died and put him in the position of finding a wife who will suit him. Mary Cynster wants to find her hero like all the other women in her family have. But Mary is intent on remaining in control of her husband and Ryder is about the most unmanageable man in her universe. The clash between the two was entertaining and funny in the way I've come to expect from Laurens. And I liked that Mary was so bossy. She wasn't afraid of who she was even if that intimidated many of the men she interacted with. And she never became so stubborn that she lost intelligence. Ryder was a typical Laurens male, confident, controlling and predatory (in a good way).

But oh God the plot. I don't require much from my romances because honestly plot isn't why I read them. But if you're going to have a villain stalking the main characters, I'd prefer that either it isn't that obvious who it is or the main characters aren't that unbelievably stupid. Given the multiple scenes where the villain complains about how much she hates Ryder and how much she just wishes he'd die already, Laurens was apparently relying on you not being 100% sure the villainess was really responsible for the mayhem to provide the mystery. This is probably an odd comparison because I doubt there are that many videogame and romance fans, but it was a lot like watching Chris from Resident Evil 5. You watch them fumble around and get tossed from one ridiculously obvious situation to another and you just want to yell at them or slap the stupid out of them. And by the time they do FINALLY get it, you're so annoyed that just want to bash them over the head for being so stupid to begin with. It was enough to bother me through the whole thing. I don't know why I keep picking up new Laurens novels when they keep disappointing me in comparison to the old ones. The interaction between Mary and Ryder is entertaining but not enough to finish all 415 pages. Personally, I'd skip it and re-read some of the older ones.