Rane Aria

I've truly fallen in love with McRae's writing and early on my love for this writing is tested with her 'A Highly Respectable Widow' that held me but at the same time wanted me to smack the hero upside the head! Earl of Knowlton is bored. A rake of the tenth-degree, he bored with his life of parties and easy conquests. Thinking to get away from it all, he journeys to his country seat to find some sort of peace to his otherwise mundane life at the moment. There he's floored when he meets the lovely widow Katherine Mayfield whose bright red hair not only catches his eye but he thinks she maybe the cure to his boredom with an short liaison between the two. He didn't count of Kate saying "No" Kate has had her fill of men thinking she maybe an easy conquests because of her red hair and being a widow. She knows Knowlton is cut from the same cloth but as she starts to discover more about him she's torn between who is the real man. The widow troupe has been played before, but McRae makes it seem like a new tune. Kate isn't blind to her feelings when it comes to Knowlton but doesn't bow to his wishes to be his mistress neither does she hold herself up as a paragon of virtue. She torn by her emotions and the kind Knowlton who treats her son kindly, his tenants with respect and makes her heart race. It was refreshing to have a heroine who doesn't fight her emotions just accepts the love for a man who won't love her back the way she needs to be and is willing to move on for the better good. Knowlton on the other hand doesn't let go and can't accept the word "No" in bursts of enlightenment Knowlton does see where he's done wrong by Kate, but can't accept that he's fallen in love with her, blinded by his pride and his lust. He pushes and pushes her only to have it thrown back into his face. Knowlton at times got on my nerves although I was never bored with him because as the reader and outsider I knew what his problem was; he on the other hand did not. This may turn off readers when Knowlton goes manwhore and tries to get Kate outta his system by having sex with other women. Of course this doesn't work out well for him either way The saving grace of Knowlton was his words "I'm frightened". He was truly scared witless of love and being in love with Kate and while it took some time for him to come around; he did and in a big way that showed feelings he was finally able to have the courage to face up to. McRae takes the reader on this rocky relationship between Kate and Knowlton and it doesn't get easier along the way but it was a battle worth fighting for and the HEA was well deserved for this couple (and the reader!)