5 Star Review: Betrayed by Your Kiss

Author| Laura Landon
Edition| eGalley courtesy of Montlake Romance via Netgalley
Genre| Historical Romance
Publisher| Montlake Romance
Release| March 24th, 2015
Rating| 5 Stars

No one is more surprised than I am to find myself giving a guilty pleasure book five stars.  I recently started reading historical romance for the fluff and sweet, short stories.  But this one took it up a level.  I was surprised by how much I liked it, and looking at the author's other work, how much I think I'll like them all.

In Betrayed by Your Kiss Olivia sends her fiance, Damien, away when a price is put on his head.  Then, she learns he died in a fire and her whole life is changed.  She keeps his death a secret and takes on his estate, her own, and her father's company after his own death.  When his will is read she learns the truth- Damien is alive, and if she desires to keep everything that matters to her, she must marry him, even if he will never give her his heart.

This book is fast-paced.  There was little fluff in here.  Rather, it focused on the reaction of what Olivia had done and dealt with troubles with her shipping company.  There was a whole cast of characters, not super interesting, but only because they weren't particularly quirky.  I did feel like I got to know them all through the course of the book.  As for Damien and Olivia, our protagonists, I liked them.  I loved Olivia.  In the strong women category, she's pretty high up.  As for Damien, I did think he came off as a jerk several times.  He had redeeming qualities, but I feel like Olivia was too good for him to be honest.

The story surprised me.  It had a false climax and plenty of drama.  Both Damien and Olivia drive the plot in their own ways and it was a lot of fun to get into their heads.  It lacked a little steam in the romance, but it made sense for the story.  It does have some charged moments, though, so if you're uncomfortable with that, I wouldn't recommend.

Thanks again to Montlake Romance and Netgalley for letting me read this book.  I thoroughly enjoyed it and plan to read more of Landon's work.