Love Me Not features one of the best endings I’ve read in a romance. Does the rest of the book live up to it? Yes, and no. Mostly yes, but there’s a bit of no as well.

This is the tortured and tortuous love story between Damien, Duke of Westbrook, and Lady Kathleen. Sworn to protect her by his late father, who protected her as a child against her evil Earl of a “father,” Damien is maddened by his feelings toward her. And she is maddened as well by his arrogance, her attraction to him, and her need for independence, as wrought by her fear of her father.

The hell that Lady Kathleen endured as a child at the hands of her father could have been cliched. Thank goodness the author stayed away from the incest theme and instead utilized some fairly unusual torments for Kathleen. This reviewer was riveted by her nightmares, daymares, and other descriptions of the evilness her father perpetrated on her.

And Damien? Well, it is harder to understand his torments. If there is a flaw in this book, it is that we see too late, if at all, why Damien so fears intimacy in a loving relationship. All the rest is there. He is a wonderfully tortured alpha male, running either hot or cold, silent and biting, or hotly passionate. But the reader may not be satisfied why he is the way he is.

In order to protect Kathleen from her father and the suitor he has arranged for her to marry, Damien rescues her in daring display of bravado. Though she is thankful, she so fears marriage and what that might do to her independence, she cannot trust Damien to do right by her.

So the conflict is set. Kathleen is afraid of commitment and love because she has seen how her mother suffered in her life and love. And Damien is afraid of commitment and love.

Will this be a marriage of convenience to be annulled at a later date? If their goal of annulment is to be reached, they must remain aloof to each other. But their goal is dashed time and time again, by danger, by the beginnings of trust, and by their passions.

There are some frustrating passages in this book. The author builds the sexual tension to a fevered pitch. The closeness Kathleen and Damien shares is juxtaposed by their pushing each other away, again and again. The reading of this book is akin to dancing a tango, going one direction, then another at the snap of a finger.

As I said in my opening, the ending of this book is one of the best I’ve ever read. While there is some frustration encountered along the way, and some difficulty understanding why Damien reacts as he does, Love Me Not is worth the read. But make sure you have some tissue around; by the end you’ll need it.