Sexy, sexy math problems…
In a nutshell: Young noblewoman accidentally transported with women convicts to colonial Virginia to become a bride. She weds Hero in a marriage of convenience until they can prove/disprove her story. Math happens (more on that later). They proceed to act stupidly towards each other until an Indian attack brings them together and they confess their true feelings.
This isn’t the worst book I’ve read on Amazon. Character development and dialogue are decent. Action/fight scenes are better than average. There is attention to historical details on culture, food, dress, customs, etc. These factors made it worthwhile to read, but I did have some hangups:
The use of math story problems as flirtation/foreplay is simply too much for my suspension of disbelief. I can’t read these scenes with a straight face. Everybody has their thing, it’s cool, but I didn’t need so many of the answers spelled out in such detail. I feel like someone may be overcompensating due to personal failure in the art of seduction by math (incidentally, words I never thought I would use together).
So Hero is already getting laid through the power of math, but decides to hedge his bets by bringing in theology. Here is an actual line of pillow talk: “God is watching, Connie, and He is very, very pleased.” Duuuude, that’s super creepy. This conjures an image of a voyeuristic god peeping in the windows. I understand it from a theological standpoint, but as pillow talk I find it very disturbing.
The story makes use of the classic “couple sleeps together and is totally BLINDSIDED by pregnancy!” trope. Heroine is like “sure, I slept with him and I haven’t had a period in 4 months, but that can’t possibly mean anything” (verbatim). Until her friend steps up to tell her “uh yeah, so you’re actually a moron” (verbatim). Hero is like “it’s not as if I slept with her and then stopped talking to her OH WAIT that’s exactly what happened but she’s totally not pregnant because she’s not” (verbatim). I mean, come on. Sure, they don’t have all the scientific know-how we do, but they should have enough information to at least entertain the possibility BEFORE she is halfway through pregnancy.
Formatting is imperfect; numerous run-on paragraphs with dialogue from different speakers.
Bottom-line sexual content: Kissing; intercourse happens off-camera and within marriage.