Ronda Thompson - The Dark One

Rosalind Rutherford knows full well the scandal she courts when she attempts to seduce the notorious Armond Wulf--in fact, she's counting on it as a means to escape her sadistic stepbrother's control. Unfortunately, Lord Wulf's better instincts prevail...although not before he gives Rosalind a tantalizing taste of what she's missing. And when the opportunity arises to rescue Armond from a grim fate while changing her own, Rosalind knows she must seize it...
Armond can no more ignore the Rutherford woman than his ancestor could resist the temptress who cursed the Wulf men with a terrifying transformation that occurs at the appearance of the full moon--and is set in motion by love. Now, to save her reputation and his freedom, Armond must marry Rosalind. But he vows that while they may share the pleasures of the marriage bed, she will never have his heart...
Yet as strange and mysterious events bring them closer in body and soul, Armond finds it increasingly difficult to keep his feelings for his new wife locked away. Especially when the reality of unquenchable desire--and certain danger--burn stronger than ever by the light of a full moon...

Comment: Another book which has been in the shelf for years... I've tried to have a go at some of the paperback editions which have been left behind and I will do so again next year, and then, hopefully, the list of physical books collecting dust will be smaller...

In this story we meet Rosalind Rutherford, a young woman who has lived in peace at her father's estate in the country, but since her father's death her inheritance and guardianship passed to her stepbrother Franklin. They don't get along and Franklin has a gambling debt to an old man, wanting to use Rosalind as an exchange, but she decides to try to take things into her own hands. She approaches Armond, Lord Wulf, a man known for his charisma but that no lady dares to be linked to since his family is under some kind of curse. At first, Armond wants to stick to his loneliness, believing his family's curse won't allow him to find happiness, but Rosalind makes him want to ignore his instincts and things become even worse when someone wants to make it look as if Armond is guilty of killing a woman in his propriety...

Reading this novel reminded me of those old PNR stories where the paranormal element (or elements) was a terrible thing. This was published in 2005 and that might explain the "trend", but I will say that now that I've read so many PNR books where characters who are not simply human are as worthy of feelings and complex in personality, this one felt extremely weak and less appealing in comparison.

The author was not really hiding the idea of what type of curse Armond's family went through, just look at their name, but I still can't quite say if the men in the family could change into wolves or if that state was the terrible fate if they couldn't find a way to avoid it... nevertheless, I feel that this was a little disappointing to me, since my preferred type of PNR is the one containing shape shifters. This means I like it when this situation (shape shifting) is an important part of the plot or the characterization, or if it is seen as natural, positive...it was very hard to not think of this the more Armond complained and thought how devastating this was for his future.

This aside, we also have to give our attention to Rosalind's situation and a slight suspense element in terms of what was going on about the woman killed in Armond's propriety. In regards to this, considering it's not the focus, I'd say it was done in a predictable but simple way. There was no need for a lot of investigation, but it did allow for some setup to why Armond and Rosalind interacted in certain moments. As with everything, if this had been meant to be a different type of novel, these elements might been more intricate, but they matched their purpose.

The romance, on the other hand, had a lot more attention and development, but I was not fully convinced either. I suppose that it's a bit related to the writing style. I just don't think the author meant the story to be more than what was the trend of that time, so nothing special comes to mind about it. Things go through the motions and in the end I'm glad they got their HEA, but I don't think this was the best romance story it could be.

There is a lot of lack of communication and not sharing of important things between them. At first this is expected, but confiding in one another might have been a good way to bring them closer before any intimacy or unavoidable revelations. As time goes by and their relationship progresses, we see some evolution but in my opinion, too slow. Then, it becomes necessary for them to marry and this might have been the way for things to develop quicker, but Armond's fears obviously don't allow it until very close to the end of the story.

To my personal preference, the shape shifting aspect should have been an important one. As it ended up not being so, I felt the story line lost some of its urgency too. Perhaps I'm being unfair in this, but that what I think. All things considered, this story had good bones, good ideas, but I wasn't too fond of the plot choices nor of some characterization and I feel I don't need to read any more in the series.

Grade: 6/10