I read first read this and Garwood in early teens, I would read her very differently now. Jamie was a ridiculous Mary Sue. I get what you mean about Garwood having almost comedic tone in this. The vibe was that even the servants whistle while they work, it was a strange mixture of this and some rough aspects of women having shitty.
I think I would have been more amused by her inability to navigate directions more if she had other flaws as well--the first and second time her bad sense of direction was brought up, I found it cute after all. But the fact that she was darn near good at everything and described as a beautiful angel so many times started getting kind of old. Otherwise, I think she would have been a pretty likable character. Don't get me wrong, teenage me probably would have really liked this book, minus the sex scenes, because I was super anti-sex scenes when I was a teen. But the romance itself probably wouldn't have bugged me as much as it does at present.
And I've always found Garwood's subtle humor to be one of her saving graces. I've read the first few of her 'Buchanan-Renard' books and probably found enjoyment in them moreso because of that comedic tone that she manages to naturally drop into the narratives. But her stories were never really favorites.
It sure is, isn't it? I'm not really all that familiar with the Medieval timeline, but that wedding dress looks pretty modern to me. The Kindle version I read has a cover with highlander plaid background, but the dress that the woman on the cover is wearing still looks like it's from the wrong time period.
To make matters worse, the heroine, Jamie, actually wears a black dress to her very brief wedding ceremony as a rebellious act--just to express how very much she doesn't want to marry. =P
And I've always found Garwood's subtle humor to be one of her saving graces. I've read the first few of her 'Buchanan-Renard' books and probably found enjoyment in them moreso because of that comedic tone that she manages to naturally drop into the narratives. But her stories were never really favorites.