I started this with some trepidation, because of unpleasant spoilers I'd read. In the end though, I decided it worked about as well as Deeper -- which is to say mostly, but in a slightly lopsided way.

In Deeper, I thought Caroline's journey was very well done, but West didn't make a lot of sense to me. Here it was the other way around. West's portrayal as someone who hasn't been able to hope for anything for himself since he was ten years old, who's been used and abused by everyone with power over him, was very strong. And I was really happy with how he started to find what was important to him and work for it.

Caroline was more oblique to me, perhaps because I didn't really agree with her justifications for her decisions about West -- her decisions about how she wants to deal with her past and the rest of her life are much clearer -- and because I found her behavior towards West invasive and even violent. I was surprised at how much West let her get away with and wondered if he just didn't really notice because he's so used to being treated badly.

I found the end something of a letdown because although both are taken in a very good direction, there seems to be a lot from West's past that hasn't really been addressed. I dislike the idea of a third book so I'd just as soon let it go, but it felt incomplete.

On balance, I don't think it was as good as Deeper, but still very worth reading, and with a notably different happy ending.

I found Bully perturbing in many ways -- the seemingly inevitable slut-shaming, the horrific double standard (which is apparently a theme in Douglas's work -- every single plot is Man-Whore vs. Good Girl), and the cruelty and violence. Still, the story was damn interesting, and I was eager to continue the series. After this book though, and skimming parts of the next, I may be done.

Not only did I hate Until You, but its blatant, convoluted attempts to address every complaint made about Bully just made me more conscious of everything I had disliked; instead of making me more sympathetic to the main character through showing his point of view, I wound up loathing him and every single character in the book. (It's appropriate that this included the heroine's best friend, who had seemed misguided but genuinely caring in Bully -- she's going to be the heroine of a future book, and thus apparently simply must be utterly loathsome.) The number of lampshades hung is ludicrous -- no, no, Jared doesn't think of women as disposable, though he clearly does. No, no, he isn't slut-shaming, though he clearly is. No, no, he didn't actually have sex with all those other girls he was pawing while Tate was around, because he just loves her SO MUCH he can't even bear the thought.

The terrible narration of the audiobook didn't help: Jared sounds like a whiny little boy, making it impossible to believe everyone obeys him and all girls are dying to have sex with him. I don't think it was just the crappy narrator, though. Tate's voice in Bully made the two of them interesting people, despite how fucked up they are. Jared's voice shows him to not think of anything other than his wrongs and how much he loves and hates Tate. He's a fantasy, not a person, and a nasty fantasy to boot.

There was just so much weirdness in this one. One secondary character talks about how her mom cared more about her career than her family, adding "It was almost a relief for Dad, and us, when she died." Wow. Later she mentions casually that she's prone to migraines, as if she'd said, "Oh yeah, an elephant sometimes sits on my face, no biggie."

But the stuff with the hero was the weirdest of all. He tells the heroine that she's putty in his hands and he could have her whenever he wants, but at the end explains that he'd been waiting for her to grow up and be able to physically respond to him. Wha...? I'm so confused...

Oh, and after being warned that he must let the concussed amnesiac heroine regain her memory naturally, and dealing with all kinds of complications to protect her from discovering she's forgotten five years of her life, he decides to just up and tell her, "You're actually 22, not 17" so that it's not as gross when he makes out with her.

Even with all that, I enjoyed it. Sometimes I'm just in the mood for a really nasty Palmer hero and this one was super nasty. And the heroine was pretty tough, not just a doormat.

book trigger warning: heroine was raped

This was one of the first Harlequin Presents I read when I started up again after a 30 year hiatus. I hated it, but recently felt like rereading it and seeing what I think now.
 
Joel: [Is typical sexist horrible HP hero.]
Darcy: "I hate you I hate you I hate you."
[forced marriage, followed by forced seduction sexytimes]
Darcy: "That was awesome! TOO awesome. Get away from me you disgusting pervert!"
Joel: "I feel terrible about having been a typical sexist horrible HP hero, so will now respect your oft-stated desire to have nothing to do with me."
Darcy, to self: "He loves someone else! He was just using me for sex!"
Joel: "Please spend platonic time with me because I'm so crazy about you."
Darcy: "Get away from me you disgusting pervert!"
[initiated by Darcy sexytimes]
Joel: "I love you I love you I love you."
Darcy: "He loves someone else! He was just using me for sex! Get away from me you disgusting pervert!"
Joel: "I was only a typical sexist horrible HP hero because I fell in love with you at first sight."
Me: "Oh fuck off, the both of you!"

This started out delightfully appalling, but then just went over the top to only appalling. The way the hero kept stroking the heroine while telling her he was forcing her to marry him and have babies was gross. And then the heroine decides she was just being cowardly by refusing to marry him! (What a surprise when she almost instantly regrets it.) To top it off, there's almost no payoff for his bad behavior at the end.

It's a shame, because this is the first time I've read Lucy Monroe in years without being driven nuts by the actual prose.