Summary Innocent on Her Wedding Night
Laine waited for her handsome new husband, Daniel Flynn, to come to her on their wedding night—knowing that their marriage was a sham. Daniel didn't love her—he was just fulfilling a promise he'd made to take care of her.—
So Laine fled—a married woman, but still an innocent!
Two years later, broke and vulnerable, Laine has to face Daniel again. And this time Daniel will take the wedding night that should have been his.— Innocent on Her Wedding Night
Poor communication and misunderstandings are standard in romance novels, but, oh my God, I wanted to knock some sense into both Laine and Daniel! Why didn't they talk to each other? Okay, so they allowed their fears to affect their decisions which caused the disintegration of their marriage. It was frustrating to read about, but I honestly can't complain too much because their problems created plenty of angst which in turn increased my reading pleasure. Hehe
To be fair, Laine was very young (18-20) when she and Daniel first got together so I couldn't completely hate her for her actions. She still had a lot of maturing to do with learning how to confront and communicate at the forefront. Daniel shares half the blame for never reassuring the inexperienced Laine. He also exasperated me by treating Laine so coldly in the present day. It seemed so counterproductive considering the nature of his true motivations.
Their declarations of love felt rather tame because neither Laine nor Daniel expressed much passion or excitement at the end, but this was a decent romance overall.
P.S. Reader beware. Sara Craven, Queen of the Flashback, uses this device again in this book but the execution seemed more clumsy than usual. English Laine Sinclair has had a crush on Daniel Flynn, her brother Simon's friend, for years. Laine first met him when she was six years old, when her brother brought Daniel to the family home, Abbotsbrook, over the summer holidays. Daniel has been her friend, and protector, ever since. Years later, when she's seventeen, her brother dies in a climbing accident. Laine's selfish mother takes her out of the school she loves so she can stay at home, at Abbotsbrook, and take care of the household chores (since the maid got dismissed). The family is supposedly low on money now that brother Simon isn't there to help out anymore. When Daniel visits, he is surprised to find that Laine has suddenly left school, and is now doing the chores. After he realizes what's going on he eventually proposes to her. They marry, but the evil other woman tells Laine that Daniel married her only because of a promise he made to her brother before he died. Believing the other woman, Laine tells Daniel the marriage was a mistake, and they get an annulment. But, two years later, they meet again. Will the truth finally come out?
I really liked Daniel, I thought he was wonderful! I liked how he was kind to Laine when she was young. He recommended a school she would like, and visited her there, (to the envy of the other female students!) He always seemed to be there for her. Laine was a bit foolish for believing the other woman--she should've talked to Daniel and heard what he had to say. This wasn't a light romance, it sometimes had a sad, melancholy feel to it, and a lot of it was told in flashbacks. But I was always curious to see what was going to happen. This was an enjoyable and good read by Sara Craven. English A second chance story with a clueless, *young* heroine (18 when they married - now 20) and a hero who should have known better than to let her go on their wedding night. Because their break up hinges on a misunderstanding , this plot got old fast. But it was interesting to read just how cruel the people in the heroine's backstory could be and how Cinderella-like her present circumstances could descend. There is a last minute misunderstanding with an OW who is pregnant and chatty just to keep the H/h in agony a little longer.
There's lots of drama and cruel moments and a heroine who can't eat or sleep. If you're looking for intensity you'll find it here. If you're looking for characters who think and act with logic or curiosity, this one is not for you. English Thought I had while reading this… could the reason so many category romance heroines are depicted as unbelievably pure and good and self-sacrificing be an attempt to cover up the fact that they're incredibly self-absorbed? I mean, it would be obvious to a three year old child that Laine kicked Daniel in the teeth in this story -- not once, but several times -- but does she ever notice? No, she's too busy trying to protect her own heart to realize she's stomping all over his. Great heroine-pov-only story, with angst that goes up to eleven. English
What an emotionally draining read. Anyone who thinks that Harlequin always means brainless read, should think again. However, that said, Innocent On Her Wedding Night was a hard book to get through and an even harder book to review.
Here are the reasons:
Sara Craven has the writing of angst, torment, guilt, betrayal and passion down to an art, but let me tell you, I wasn’t sure I’d be able to finish it. Not since reading Whitney, My Love have I read a book that was so frustratingly full of life altering misunderstandings and lack of communication. I’m not saying that Innocent On Her Wedding Night is in the same league as Whitney, My Love, just that it was easily that frustrating.
I persevered, however, secure in my belief that after all the pain we endured reliving the events of their tortured past, that their happily ever after would be amazing. But honestly, at one point, I wasn’t sure there was even going to be one because of how badly the hero, Daniel, and the heroine, Laine, treated each other. Even though I kept reminding myself that this is a Harlequin and I needed to keep the faith because surely the happily ever after was coming, with only 20 or so pages to go, I had to skip to the end to make sure that they were actually going to end up together. And of course they did, but that in and of itself was really quite disappointing. I just didn’t buy the way things were resolved, the emotions, and especially not the dialog. The angst was totally believable, but the joy of their reunion … no so much. In fact, I almost felt like I was reading the writing of two different authors, one writing the suffering, the other writing the joy with the joy not terribly convincing. The words were there, but I didn’t feel it.
Another issue I have is with the author’s writing style. This book takes place in the past and the present. There are many flashbacks in which we are actually seeing events unfold, many times when the heroine was merely in the present thinking of the past, and then of course, in the present thinking of the present. The problem I have is that there was absolutely no indication which time period we were in. No paragraph break, no italics, no “Laine thought back to the time…” Nothing. Nada. Zip. Zilch. I had to go back and forth too many times to try and figure out where we were and what was happening. This was just plain poor writing/editing/style and unless someone tells me she no longer writes that way, I’ll not go out of my way to get anything else by this author.
I really wasn’t in the mood for this kind of emotional turmoil. I grabbed this book thinking… Harlequin = easy, happy read but wow, was I wrong. However, I’m still giving this book a generous 3/5 stars because of how well said emotional turmoil was written. For making the story flow well and easy to follow, it gets 0 stars.
English
What can I say?
Read this one because it came up in the discussion about the author's book Ruthless Awakening. The discussion centred on her use of flashbacks to tell the story, a device most people find onerous (personally, I like a good flashback story). So, I read it. But, don't let the four stars fool you, I found her use of the technique in this book not as subtly done and well-placed as is the aforementioned title. Most of them were what bad flashbacks can be, superfluous and an annoying distraction from the main story happening in the present (I didn't need a blow-by-blow about what happened in America with that South-African creep)!
All said, I did enjoy the story though. I liked the angst (pretty intense) and tolerated the H's meanness because I could obviously see from the get-go that he was motivated by love for her. Her stupidity (pride) was a bit harder to swallow, but her pain was fairly palpable and so I still wound up liking and rooting for her.
There were some other parallels between this book and the other I mentioned though, but, because Ruthless Awakening is of a slightly higher standard and I gave it four stars, I feel comfortable dropping this down to a 3 1/2. English Why the four stars when it could have been solved two years ago with a simple I love you from either part and the tons of flashbacks throughout the story (I'm not fan of it, I prefer to have the facts first)? BECAUSE I only stopped a couple of times to go to the bathroom so it means I was entertained and a couple of tears fell along the way. But I needed an epilogue.
More info with KC English 5 stars for intensity and absolute crazy passion. Minus 1 star for the heroine's self absorption and lack of brains.
Seriously, she takes the word of an evil OW rather than the man that has alway been there for her. She walks away from a marriage that most women would die for, rather than sit and talk things out. She runs off with a loser who portrays her as a slut and basically sells her to another man.
But the hero is awesome and more than makes up for her stupidity. I highly highly recommend. English nice one. could have done without so much back story though. English Laine-Cinderella is in love with Daniel her brother's best friend ever since she was a little girl. Daniel is her friend, her protector and guardian. When her brother dies in a tragic accident Daniel afraid of losing the girl he loves and trying to protect her from her bitchy mother proposes marriage to Laine and she accepts. After the wedding evil OW makes the heroine believe Daniel doesn't love her he is just fulfilling a promise he'd made to her dead brother. The heroine flees but two years later Daniel is back in her life.
Amazing read but kind of heartbreaking. The hero was smitten with the heroine since forever and her stupidity and naivety ruined everything. It made me sad watching her reject him again and again. She said some very harsh words to him and poor guy was deeply hurt. He didn't deserve that.
That being said the book was full of nonstop angst, super emotional and so intense! But the HEA was weak. After what they've been through these characters deserved a sweeter better HEA!
English