Young Adult

Dev Rating: ***

The movie Young Adult with Charlize Theron was not at all what I was expecting.

 Being about a YA author, I thought it would be zany and fun, an upbeat comedy. It came up on Netflix and I watched it last night, discovering that it was anything but upbeat. It's actually very difficult to watch.

The main character is struggling with depression and her behavior can be very difficult to empathize with. The only thing that kept me watching was discovering a character played by Patton Oswald who has a disability.

The story is that Mavis leaves the big city of Minneapolis to go back home to Mercury, Minosota when she sees her ex-boyfriend's announcement that he and his wife have had a baby. Mavis becomes convinced that Buddy, her ex, is trapped in his marriage and would want to escape with her. When she arrives, she bumps into someone else she went to high school with, Matt. She doesn't remember him, even though his locker was next to hers, because she was a cool kid. Her memory is triggered when she realizes that he is "the hate crime guy." Meaning that Matt had been attacked and brutally beaten by other kids at the school because they thought he was gay. He says because he actually isn't gay, it turns out it wasn't a hate crime. But his legs were damaged beyond repair and he walks with one forearm crutch. Mavis gets drunk and tells him her plan to get Buddy away from his wife. Matt tries to talk her out of it, but she is entirely delusional. Throughout the movie, Matt and Mavis start to become friends since he's the only one who is seeing the real her.

I found his character to be deeply moving. The crutch was not something that he just carried around for its metaphorical value to the movie. He really does move with it. He has the insight that Mavis lacks and she is not able to see it when she hurts him. I was really surprised by how sensual and sexy I found him to be.

 There's a rather hilarious scene when they bump into Mavis's cousin who is a paraplegic and the "happiest cripple in town" according to Matt. The guy is cheerful and upbeat, telling them about his wife, his kids, his rock climbing, and how he and Matt were "rebooted for extra positivity."

 Overall, though, it is a really sad movie. It ended on a note of hope, but not nearly the happy ending that this American viewer loves! It left me feeling bleak. Still, it was totally worth watching for Oswald's performance. I never would have expected to find him sexy, but he really was. Just make sure you have someone nearby to cuddle with when it's over.

A Slow, Cold Death

A Slow, Cold Death
by Susy Gage


 Dev Rating: ***

This book was sent to me by the author so I could give it an endorsement. Pretty cool!

It's quite a different kind of book and I appreciate that about it. It's a murder mystery that takes place within the world of academic research, a physics lab to be exact. I have long been fascinated by the unique atmosphere of university research labs with their crazy red tape and strange rules.

The characters are wild and large and a lot of fun to follow.

Lou is the character in a wheelchair. He was paralyzed in a car accident that starts looking less and less like an accident as other people in his department are killed.

I wish there had been more of him and more devy scenes, but okay, it's not written by a dev. There's a great bike ride that I found very devy.

I like the portrayal of Lou a lot. He's realistic and believable. He shows how much a paralyzed man can still do but the narrative also shows his struggles.

The author has promised more books with Lou and Lori, so I look forward to seeing more of him much like I read Meg Gardiner's books for Jesse.

Read an interview with the author at my blog: http://www.ruthmadison.com/review-a-slow-cold-death/

To Hear You Smile

To Hear You Smile by Gina Rossi

(The title is so hard to read on the cover! Plus you hardly get any idea at all what the book is about. Bad design, if you ask me).

Dev Rating: **
(As a book, 4/5)

I like the writing style in this one a lot. The author is clearly a pro. It's sweet, endearing, romantic, and fun. It seriously makes me want to pack up and move to a quiet English village.

The only problem is that the blurb is left intentionally vague about the disability because (DevoGirl, look away!), the heroine meets the blind hero and doesn't realize that he's blind. Yes, this is one of DG's top complaints about books with blind characters.

It was difficult for me to keep reading because I found that idea so silly. Oliva meets Zac three or four times, and even has a lengthy date with him, without ever figuring out that he's blind. There are little hints all over the place (and in the title, of course), but it's half way through the novella before Oliva finds out (and I guess it's supposed to be a surprise for the reader too?)

If you are able to see past that conceit, the story is really charming and I would recommend it. The dev factor was lessened for me because I found the confusion about him being blind to be really irritating. If I wasn't so distracted by that I would have found it significantly more devy.

I'm looking forward to trying more stories from this author.

See a longer review on my website: www.ruthmadison.com

A Life Worth Living

A Life Worth Living by Lorrie Kraus

Dev Rating: ****
(Although, it didn't get super devy for me until the last third of the book)

I really enjoyed this book.

The first thing that really impressed me was how accurate all the details were. This is an author who definitely knows a lot about SCI (and when I interview her, I’m going to ask her about that!) From how the insurance works to ordering a wheelchair to the physical changes in how a paralyzed person knows when he needs to use the bathroom, it is all accurate. I really appreciate that real life issues of paraplegia were not glossed over.

I love the message that sometimes the best thing in your life comes from your plan for your life getting completely screwed up. Good is born from bad. I think that’s so true.

Ordinarily I don’t read new injury stories, as they tend to bore me. I’ve read so, so many books with disabled characters and that right-after-the-accident time tends to be all the same. I prefer a hero who has adjusted to his disability and has moved on with his life. Here, however, the little bit of a mystery about what really happened that night was enough to keep me engaged and moving forward.

I feel like the time Matt spent with the girl who was CLEARLY all wrong for him what too long. I was getting frustrated and fed up that he couldn't see that she wasn't the right person for him until page 300. Now, at page 300 the book became great, in my opinion. That's when it really became romantic and sexy and completely enjoyable. Basically it's when he begins the process of courting the girl that we all know is perfect for him.

 My only real criticism is a tiny one. There's talk about how he needs to order his own chair and he resists that for a long time. When he finally agrees to do it, we never see him actually get a new chair. So it didn't become clear to me that he was no longer using the hospital chair until there's a mention of him taking the wheels off when he gets in a car. It pulled me from the story a little to be wondering about that and I would have liked to see a scene with him getting the new chair, seeing how different it was from the hospital chair and how much easier it was to maneuver.

I would cry foul on how easy it was for Matt to get and maintain an erection, but because all the details of his injury were so very accurate it was easy for me to buy that he was lucky in his particular injury. Overall I really enjoyed this book, particularly, as I said, the last third of it. I'd highly recommend this to any dev. It's what a love story should be, I think!

 Read a longer review at my site: ruthmadison.com And an interview with the author will be up soon!

Vittorio's Woman

Vittorio's Woman
by Kinberley Reeves

Dev Rating: *

Lilly is a physical therapist, but she doesn't do it for money, she just really likes helping people. She gets a call from the sister of a man she saw once at a party and developed a huge crush on, Simon Vittorio. The sister says that Simon's had an accident and he's in despair. He needs a tough physical therapist to pull him from his depression and get him inspired to walk again. Simon has also been blinded by this accident, the characters hope temporarily. Little does Lilly know, Simon remembers her and has also been longing for her as much as she has for him. But he's driven away other psychical therapists and he's going to do the same to her by making her super uncomfortable sexually. (???)

The writing is fine. No glaring errors, nothing really wrong with it, but the book definitely left me feeling "meh." 

But oh my God, the cliches. Every single one of the romance genre seems to be present here:

-She's cute when she's angry. Whenever she's upset, Simon has to stifle the urge to laugh.
-She's so special that a man-whore who has been sleeping with any girl who breathes for the last twenty years or so instantly falls so in love with her that he'll never want anyone else ever again.
-She's secretly a virgin (and secretly rich)
-Outrageous and ridiculous misunderstandings abound when a simple conversation would make everything clear

(Okay, at least there isn't a secret baby)

And Simon's big plan to drive Lilly away? To kiss her. Seriously? The plot is convoluted, strange, and hard to make any sense out of. 

I didn't find anything sexy about Simon personally. He is rich and Italian and passionate and (apparently) madly in love with the heroine (for no discernible reason). That's probably plenty of people's fantasy, but I found him foppish and irritating. The laughing at Lilly whenever she was upset and telling her how adorable she is when she's mad was so patronizing it kind of made me hate him. If he had felt real enough to hate, anyway.

It's pretty clear from the start that a cure is likely. I don't think I can call it a "miracle cure," since his prognosis from the start is that he's going to recover. This is more of a nurse-back-to-health fantasy than a dev fantasy. But then, why is he driving away physical therapists and being bitter when he's likely to recover if he just puts in a tiny bit of effort...? I have no idea.

The cover is a weird choice too. Sexy image (would be better with a wheelchair!) but you can't even read the title at all. The lack of contrast is a very unprofessional choice.

Longer review here: www.ruthmadison.com/monday-book-review-vittorios-woman

Lovers Lame

Lovers Lame by Robert Rudney

Dev Rating: 1.5 *

Though the main character is a man with a mobility disability, I didn't find this book to be very devvy.

I know it seems strange to say a book was too realistic, but that was kind of how I felt about this one. It was like watching a neighbor. And I just wanted something a bit more interesting, more of something to get into.

The struggle for people with disabilities to find jobs is certainly a really important issue, but the protagonist of this book didn't seem like the kind of person who was able to make me care about it. He was more passive than I tend to like my heroes, I think.

There's some issues with more telling than showing of the story, particularly in the beginning. It takes a couple of chapters before any sort of story begins.

The feel of the book is very memoir-like, though it is fiction.

To learn more about it, I do have an interview with the author at my website: http://www.ruthmadison.com/monday-book-review-author-interview/

Cowboy Down

Cowboy Down
by Vanessa Gray Bartal

Dev Rating: **

A somewhat silly premise typical of a rom-com style romance novel, but it really does work.

The characters are very endearing and likable. Especially the girl. The boy has some annoying woe-is-me moments, but is overall charming.

For me the dev moments were few, but the ones that were there were great. There's the time Cade falls from his chair into the mud. There's when Cade is taking care of an ill Layla. 

There are some not great things such as the brothers in the story all having ridiculously similar names. Also, I found it really hard to believe that Layla was a foster kid. She told us a lot about how untrusting she was, but what was shown was the opposite.

The cover is also terrible. A gray tone cover definitely does not catch the eye and the text is difficult to read on it. It looks really unprofessional. Instead of buying the book outright (even though it was a cheap ebook) I downloaded the sample. I was pretty sure from the cover that I wasn't going to like it.

But then, as a sample should, I fell in love with Layla's character and wanted to keep reading.


For a more detailed review, visit: http://www.ruthmadison.com/monday-book-review-cowboy-down/

Mission Canyon

Dev Rating: ****

The main character, Evan, is a plucky, sarcastic jill-of-all-trades who is engaged to a handsome lawyer in a wheelchair, Jesse. The plot of this particular book has the man who ran over Jesse back in town after trying to run from manslaughter charges (Jesse's friend was killed in the crash). Confusing motives and big corporations with shady dealings soon get involved and Evan plays detective with her many skills and interests.

One thing I really appreciate is that Jesse's disability isn't there in order to raise the stakes in the plot. I've complained about that before in some horror books and movies. Here it doesn't feel as though the disability is around purely for a plot point or to make an extra challenge. It's just part of their lives, part of the lives of the characters.

The sexual side of spinal cord injury is not delved into deeply in this book, but it isn't glossed over either. It's realistic, believable, and nicely done.

Jesse is definitely a heart throb: gorgeous, young, smart, and witty. His wheelchair is given, I think, just the right amount of attention. It is not harped on, but not ignored either. He is a very strong man, definitely an alpha type, and Evan makes a point of saying that he does not allow anyone to push him. Ever. There's a moment where a bad guy grabs hold of him by the wheelchair and pulls him and it's a powerful moment because it really drives home Jesse's inherent vulnerability despite his tremendous strength.

And how sexy is this? He defends Evan against a bad guy coming into her home and threatening her by using the end of a forearm crutch.

For a more detailed review, visit http://www.ruthmadison.com/monday-book-review-canyon-mission/

Me Before You

Dev Rating: ***

This is a difficult one to review. On the one hand, the descriptions of quadriplegic Will are fairly detailed and realistic. He is a very charming guy, particularly once Lou and he begin to like one another. On the other hand, it is another quad-wants-to-die plot written by someone who read a news article about a man who had an assisted suicide and wanted to understand it better.

The story is that Lou, a charming young woman with a quirky sense of style, gets hired to be the carer for a quadriplegic man even though she has no experience at all. It turns out that she was hired more because of her cheery nature in the hopes that she will help bring him out of depression.

Though the subject matter is heavy, it is a chick-lit style book. I was very surprised to see how many reviews the book has on Amazon. In the UK, where it is published and based, there are some 700 reviews. I've never seen that many! I have no idea how that happened, but there were several one star reviews from people who were not expecting a chick-lit book, so let me warn you about that ahead of time!

If you know me then you know that I find the quad-wants-to-die plot extremely tiresome. It reeks of ableism: "I, an able-bodied woman with no experience of disability shall write about a quadriplegic because I read about it in the news. What should I write? How about how miserable his life must be?"

I, also an able-bodied woman, have no authority to say that's not true. What I can say is that I've known quads, two of them being at the same injury level as Will and one higher. None of them have wanted to commit suicicde. They expressed to me how grateful they were to be alive and emphasized how they have grown from the experience. One told me that he had learned so much from it that his life was better than it had been.

If you're going to ever read any book where the plot is quad-wants-to-die, this is the one to read. It does present a fairly balanced view of the issue. I'm reluctant to recommend any book with this plot, but I did find myself moved by it. If you do read it, I urge you to remember that whatever it might seem like from an outside point of view, many people with quadriplegia are living happy and content lives.

I was reluctant to read the book knowing this was the plot, but I am actually glad that I read it.

For a more detailed review visit http://www.ruthmadison.com/monday-review-me-before-you//

The Old Mermaid's Tale

 The Old Mermaid's Tale

by Kathleen Valentine

Overall Rating: *****

Dev Rating: **

This is an absolutely gorgeous book. The writing is lush and rich and full, yet not at all boring. It's what I think romance novels should be.

The main character, Clair, is from a small town in the midwest and she yearns for the ocean and for adventure. She has a romantic soul. It's the 1960s and she goes off to college near the Great Lakes.

From the title I was not expecting such a modern story!

The atmosphere is so well drawn, I can really feel every moment of Clair's love of the fishermen and the water.

About half way through the book Clair meets the gorgeous, mysterious Baptiste, a single leg amputee.

He is undeniably sexy and Clair falls hard for him. It's a great depiction of disability because Baptiste hardly notices his missing leg and certainly never lets it stop him. He wears a prosthesis and it is not very noticeable. He is such a deep, rich character who is so beloved by those around him that no one tends to say much about his leg.

This makes it great from a disability issues standpoint, but not great from a dev standpoint! There is no lingering on his body for us to enjoy.

Don't let that stop you from reading the book, though. It is so beautiful and absolutely worth reading.

Her Long Lost Husband

Her Long Lost Husband
by Josie Metcalfe

NO STARS

The writing itself is good and solid. I like her voice and her style. So it's too bad that her take on the long lost husband shows up and interrupts his wife's new wedding involves descriptions of wheelchair use that make me think Gregor is in some clunky old hospital chair.

"The stark contrast of the trousers that only seemed to exaggerate the extreme thinness of his thighs as he sat there passively in the chair." Passively? This is the guy who just rolled into a wedding ceremony and is about to call out that the marriage can't take place. How is that passive?

"He hadn't wanted Livvy to see him in such a pathetic state; to see him having to laboriously heave himself out of the chair when all he could rely on was his upper-body strength." If he's been in that chair longer than two months, he should not be having that much trouble transferring into a car. When I think of the complaints the Avatar movie got that Jake seemed to be struggling with transfers more than was realistic, this is just ridiculously over the top.

I couldn't keep reading. I skipped to the end to see if what I feared was true and it was. There's a surgery and cure at the end of this book. I don't hate cure endings because I'm a bad person who wants the character to be unhappy. I hate the cure ending because 1) it makes people think that SCI is fixable and those who are still paralyzed must just be lazy, 2) it supports the belief that cure is the only path to happiness.

The guys in books like this are always miserable, whiny brats who obsesses about how they are "pathetic" or "ruined" and they shouldn't ruin their woman's life by being with her. This is such crap and makes me furiously angry. Books like this support negative stereotypes about life with disability and I think that's a terrible thing.

Lovers and Liars

Lovers and Liars
by Lilly LaRue

*

This is a short story, which I think is quite reasonable for the price. It tries to cover an awful lot of ground for a short piece, though.

It would have been a fine, sexy fantasy sort-of story if not for a couple of things. First, the characters were very thin. We didn't get a chance to get inside their minds and understand them, which made their behavior difficult to understand.

My liking for both of them fell fast based on comments like:

Bari: "She was bothered by Cooper's confinement to a wheelchair because he was so young. If she were honest with herself, she was also disappointed. Bari had been attracted to him from the moment she met him...perhaps it was for the best that he couldn't make love." Really? Because he uses a wheelchair he is A) "confined" and B) definitely unable to make love? This sort of thinking drips with pity, and yet later they get together and she tells him that his wheelchair doesn't bother her.

Bari: "At least he'd been able to walk at one point in his life. That was something to be thankful for." What kind of terrible statement is that? A person who has never walked is a sad, pitiable person?

Cooper: "I regained my sexual function. It made me realize that I was still a person." So if you don't have sexual function, you're not a person? I am nearly speechless with offense at that comment.

Cooper: "I'm stuck in this g*dd*mn wheelchair for the rest of my life and I won't be a liability to some helpless kid." Luckily he comes to feel otherwise. For my friends who are wheelchair users and fathers...I don't even have the words.

The thing that gets to me the most is that Cooper uses a power chair, supposedly. Never mind that he transfers out of it and folds it to put it in the passenger seat of his car (I've never known of a power chair that could do that), but he is paralyzed from the thighs down (conveniently, so of course sex is no problem). I am completely unable to believe that he would use a power chair.

I wanted to like this story and I really would have, but ignorant and hurtful statements about disability ruined it for me. It's one thing to have the bad guy refer to Cooper as a "cripple half-man," but I can't get past the ways Bari and Cooper themselves think of disability.

Bitter Homecoming

Bitter Homecoming
by Ann Jacobs

*

This is the usual, expected story of the bitter man who is sure that he is completely unappealing and the woman who is constantly throwing herself at him for extremely explicit sex couldn't possibly really want him. Gag.

The hero was really irritating to me. He was so insecure and whiny that I didn't find him sexy at all. The book is pretty much sex scenes plus the hero thinking "she deserves better than me, she must not really want me" followed by the heroine telling him (and definitely showing him) that she did. This pattern repeated over and over and over and over with no sense of rising tension. His use of the phrase "helpless cripple" really grated on me. At one point Gray "wondered--not for the first time--if it was worth the torture he suffered, using braces and crutches to create an illusion of mobility." And I'm right there with him wondering the same thing. Apparently he would do everything possible to avoid using a wheelchair, a medical device that is specifically designed to help with that mobility issue and that would be a much safer and easier way for him to navigate the world.

The story is that these two had an extended one-night stand before Gray went off on a dangerous mission during which he was, supposedly, killed. He left Andi pregnant, though. Eight years later he's back in town. He had been captured and tortured, but not killed. He has some sort of spinal cyst that's inhibited his ability to use his legs and he is missing one eye.

The child serves as a catalyst to get them back together and they get married after meeting again maybe two or three times. The kid himself doesn't feel real, but just a plot device (overly cute and precious). He is easy to get rid of while they have lots and lots of sex.

There was sort-of an excuse for all the hero's whining. He likes to be dominant. I would have loved to see the heroine find creative ways to show him that he can be. But he doesn't feel better about himself until he has an operation that, while it doesn't cure him, takes away a lot of the disability. Leaving me feeling upset that he can't get a happy ending with his injuries as they are.

This book may be for you, even though I disliked it. If you like very explicit sex, this might be a book you'd enjoy. If you like a guy who spends every waking minute brooding and feeling not good enough for the heroine, you may enjoy this book. If you like a heroine who never tires of being the perfect partner, the person to constantly reassure her insecure man, you may enjoy this book.

Daredevil's Run

Daredevil's Run by Kathleen Creighton

****

This is, to date, the best romance genre novel that I have read.

The action was believable, but exciting. It was paced well and the entire book took place over just a few days. I loved the way the author described each moment and movement of the characters. It drew me right into the story. There was a subtle suspense plot running under the surface and it provided just enough extra tension to really enhance the love story.

It is the story of former partners and lovers who have not seen each other for five years, not since Matt was paralyzed in a freak climbing accident. Alex (the girl, most of the girls in this book have boy names) tried to stick by him at the time, but he wasn't able to deal. His brother convinces him to go back and try to make up for it, but someone else has another agenda.

Impressively, this is the most believable portrayal of paraplegia I have ever seen in a romance novel. I found Matt very real and thought the descriptions of how he moved were accurate and well written. I also completely bought it when he performed some amazing, daring rescues!

My complaints are minor. This, as seems to be a tradition with romance novels, is part of a series of related stories. It's clear there was a previous book about Matt's brother Cory and his wife. I haven't read that one and it was not necessary to enjoy this book, but there were a lot of references to things that must have happened in the other.

Two minor points about the SCI. It was strange to me that Matt was driving a van with a wheelchair lift. I've never known a t-10 para to waste time with a slow lift, not to mention the expense, all the guys I know drive a regular car. Second, there's a line: "flexed his hands in the leather gloves all people in wheelchairs wore to protect..." I don't know of a single thing that ALL people in wheelchairs do. Certainly not gloves. Some do and some don't wear them.

The devo factor was high for me. Matt's movement was described, he was an appealing man and not a jerk, and the love-making scene at the end was not glossed over with a simple "he's a low level injury, so everything is okay."

Highly recommended.

Judging Jayden

Judging Jayden by Emma Daniels

**

Very engaging at first. The sexual tension is high and drawn out in enjoyable detail. It's a really promising start.

It's a bit difficult to believe that this gorgeous man is as insecure as he is due to such mild Cerebral Palsy that it's hardly even noticeable (the main character thinks he might have a sprained ankle, that's how subtle his limp is). The number of bad things that have happened to Jayden stretches credulity.

The beginning is very solid, but it loses focus half way through. Typos start cropping up, though I didn't find those too distracting. The arc of the plot gets lost, and it's very hard to figure out what we are rooting for, as it goes on and on after it seems the initial conflict is resolved.

There are strange moments of telling things that are huge plot points that I would expect to be shown in a scene, but I don't want to go into detail of that because of spoilers.

In devo terms, I was disappointed by how very subtle his disability was. He was hugely insecure and upset about his disability, but it seemed way out of proportion. There were some good opportunities to talk about how he walked, but there was only maybe one description of it.

A Heart of Little Faith

A Heart of Little Faith by Jennifer Wilck

**

A standard romance story with a paraplegic hero and a widowed heroine. I enjoyed the writer's style. She was very descriptive, engaging all the senses. The sexual chemistry and tension between the main characters was vivid. The secondary characters were all fun and interesting.

As is typical in these sorts of books, the hero's paralysis is incomplete and does not affect sexual functioning at all. He is insecure about his disability and wanders into a bit of melodramatic ridiculousness on occasion. Mostly he's a good, solid character, though.

I found the dev moments few and far between, but they were still there. No miracle cure, so that was good. I had some difficulty losing myself in the story because of a throw away line early on. Gideon's boss suggests setting him up with a woman he knows who thinks wheelchairs are hot. Gideon dismisses the idea, saying that these kinds of women are usually "curiosity seekers." This struck me as a very strange description. As a woman who thinks wheelchairs are hot, I am not really all that curious. I've dated and known many, many men with SCI and know more about it than the average person. I was distracted by that moment and it felt like a bit of a slap in the face, as though to say "This isn't written for you."

Overall, though, a very solid offering that follows the conventions of its genre and does so well.

The Write Man For Her

The Write Man For Her by Christie Walker Bos

**

This book is a fun, sweet, enjoyable read. I would describe it as harmless. Not life changing. The main character is an adult woman taking a creative writing class. She's fascinated by her mysterious professor and hunts him down, discovering that he is paraplegic.

He is more enjoyable than many of the very dramatic romance novels with disabled heroes. He lives an independent life, is mostly well-adjusted, and fights the creepy bad guy.

The devo moments were fairly low for me. In a lot of ways it doesn't feel like Brant is connected. In other words, the writing lightly flies past how he moves, how he is living on a houseboat, how he deals with stairs, and the effect is like he is sort-of floating, but not grounded in the world.

There is an interview with the author available here: http://www.ruthmadison.com/interview-christie-walker-bos/

Family Reunion

Family Reunion by Jill Metcalf

No Stars

I was barely able to make it through this book, not sure why I kept trying. I suppose I thought it might get better, but it didn't.

There was a lot of head-hopping, switching point-of-view frequently and without warning.

The plot was thin and any conflict that came up was resolved within a paragraph or two, there was no sense of over-arching story. The book had no structure, the story meandering all over the place without coming to a real point.

The dialogue was very stiff and not believable, a trap that historic fiction can easily fall into.

The hero was difficult to take seriously, since he peppered his speech with affectionate terms in just about every single sentence he spoke. He also was used as the vehicle to describe the heroine, which meant that he was observing how in fashion her dress was and the hem line and style of ribbons, which made him seem like he couldn't possibly be a straight male.

In devo terms, the hero is paralyzed in an accident where a horse drawing a carriage got startled by some hooligans. Leaving aside the historical unlikeliness of him surviving with such an injury, the book glosses over too much. There are too-easy solutions for any difficulty that might arise. I didn't find any dev thrill at all, but that might be because I was already too frustrated by the writing and not able to get immersed in the story.