I loved this book because it is totally different in style from the other Carlyle books I've read, so fans of Carlyle beware: no mushy, sweet, loving, adoring heroes in this one.

The hero, Kieran, wins the hand of the heroine in a card game. He doesn't particularly care for a wife, but in a spurr of the moment he decides to save her from a rake worse than himself, plus he desires her. Besides, he's just learned he's probably terminally ill, so it's not like this is going to be with her forever...

Camille, raised in France, needs an English husband before her 28th birthday due in 2 months, so she can win a portion of her grandfather's inheritance. If she also manages to get with child within 2 years, she will gain the rest of the inheritance and thus become independant from her lecherous father. So, she's more than happy to go on with this marriage, thinking she can use her husband to get with child and have nothing more to do with him besides that. After all, he's a known rake who's already told her she shouldn't count on him in any way.

Both Kieran and Camille, are people who carry their own burden. Camille has been self sufficient for too long and believes that caring for Kieran, who still continues to drink and stay all night out after their marriage, will only lead to suffering. Kieran on the other hand, tries to keep his distance because he believes that it would be easier for Camille to cope with his death if she doesn't care at all for him. But they are both misfits, people who have never been loved by anyone before, and the glimpse of care and kindness that they see in each other pulls them together. The fact that there is a powerful sexual attraction between them doesn't hurt either.

Camille is the right woman for Kieran; strong enough to pull him out of his path to self destruction and also overcome her own fear of trusting her heart to a man. Kieran is a man who doesn't speak much, but his actions prove to Camille there is tenderness and feelings for her under his tough facade, even though he refuses to aknowledge them.

I really liked seeing those two taking small steps everyday to get out of their shells and very gradualy fall in love. It was not a love in first sight match, or a sweet, tender, teenage romance. Both Camille and Kieran behaved as real grown ups and had some really heavy baggage to carry. The transition from two strangers to two people deeply caring for each other was smooth and tentative and tender and neither too fast nor too slow; no sudden epiphanies for the heroes in this one. It's also stripped of Carlyle's usual melodrama, over sentimentalism and flowery dialogues. People in favor of more sweet and loving than aloof and self-controlled heroes/heroines should pass this one.