TBR Challenge: Stealing Heaven

A bit of back story...

I started reading romance back in the mid-90s or so.  Historical romance was my drug of choice, especially after I read Julie Garwood's Castles.  Dude, for me that book did no wrong.  It was sweeping, highly romantic, dashing, and featured love scenes that just made me utterly melt (to this day, Princess Alesandra and Colin's day-after-the-wedding scene in his office is my most memorable).  Back in the early days of my reading fix, I focused on the bigwigs -- Garwood, Jayne Anne Krentz, Nora Roberts, Heather Graham (oh oh oh, I loved her Civil War series to pieces!), and even dabbled in Kay Hooper and gave Linda Howard a try.  Gah, I remember snatching up armfuls and armfuls of romance books at Walden's Bookstore (do they even exist anymore?).  We won't even go into the type of buying I continue to do these days.  I may be more picky, but there is so much more to choose from.  For every day in the week, there is probably a brand spanking new author whose book is being released.

To be frankly honest, I still have unread books on my shelves from the initial days of my romance buying frenzy.  This month's selection for the TBR Challenge, Stealing Heaven by Kimberly Cates, is just one of them.  It features just the sort of trope and atmosphere that rocked my socks back in my first days of romance fandom -- angsty, dramatic, saga-like historical romance with a brooding hero who absolutely does not want a wife but winds up with one anyway.  In this case, spinster Nora Linton answers a "want ad" of sorts when she starts sharing letters with an Irishman who seems as lonely as she.  The fact that the letters she responded to were written by his 15-year-old daughter, Cassandra, is revealed after she arrives in Ireland to begin what she hopes will be a short engagement and subsequent marriage.

From the tone of his missives, she senses a commiserating loneliness and depth of understanding.  But when she first meets Sir Aidan Kane, the aforementioned Irishman, it isn't hearts and stars, puppies and rainbow kisses she sees, but a living breathing irate man who feels as if he's been set up.  He's pissed.  And he's arrogant.  Norah's hopes are dashed almost immediately.  Despite the fact that Aidan will do anything for his daughter, he just cannot fathom marrying a woman desperate enough to travel to unknown lands to marry a man she's never met before.  Uh, desperation?

To make a long story short, Norah and Aidan thrust and parry and finally succumb to an attraction that defies either of their beliefs despite Norah's less than belle-of-the-ball looks.  While she considers herself plain, Aidan finally (hallelujah!) begins to see the beauty beneath her porcelain complexion.  It only takes approximately two-thirds of the book for that to happen.  He's been burned in the past from his first marriage to a ghee-ore-jous slut who may have posed as an innocent in society, but really was a whore at heart.  The only thing good out of that marriage is his daughter, Cassandra.  From page one we know that Aidan's lackluster image results not only from his drinking and gambling, but his reputation as a lady's man and the possible murderer of his wife as well.

If I remember correctly, Kimberly Cates had several Revolutionary War-set novels.  While I may have a handful of qualms about Stealing Heaven today (yeah, the fact that the 15-year-old daughter gets away with just about everything, after all she's just lonely and needs a mama -- gah!), it still reads very well and kept me flipping the pages at a pretty decent speed.  After all, it's angsty and, at times, tragic and is all that I embodied in romance back when I first started.  Back then I loved the saga feel to my historical romances, and there's enough meat to Stealing Heaven that translates well even among today's offerings.

The proof is in the pudding and this type of book is what made me fall in love with the genre...