A Warriner to Tempt Her by Virginia Heath - Warriner Book 3

August 21, 2019
Warriner Number 3 - Joe
 
https://www.virginiaheathromance.com/
On to the third book in the Wild Warriner series, A Warriner to Tempt Her. This story is about the smart Warriner brother, Joe. He is a doctor, so he must be smart. He also seems to be a little obsessed with the local beauty, Clarissa the Incomparable. In fact, he seems to have a little bit of a stalker feel about him in the beginning. Right away, he struck me as a tad bit shallow. He also seems to jump to wrong conclusions, especially when it comes to the beauty’s sister, Isabella.

This Wild Warriner story is not quite as light-hearted as the previous story. Both of our characters have some deep-seated problems. When Joe first crosses paths with Isabella, he thinks she is rather standoffish, and rather snobbish. But she has a big problem from her past which is overwhelming her. She is suffering from a violent sexual assault. She is living with fear. She is afraid to be with people, afraid of crowds. Her parents are trying to help as best they can, considering the time they live in. Her doctor is a true example of a physician of that time. Isabella has already been subjected to a couple of her doctor’s treatments. Of course, the history of medicine always makes me shudder. I believe some of those treatments were still being used way into the 20th century. Anyway, Isabella is trying to fix herself. She is forcing herself to face some of her fears. Eventually she does heal herself – but its slow going.

Something that I have found consistent in the Wild Warriner series is that the antagonists don’t wait until the end of the story to confess their secrets. This leaves time for a more fully developed relationship between our couple.  I am also pretty impressed with the heroines in each of the books. Even though each of them had a different set of problems, they tried to overcome those problems themselves. I never had the feeling that these were TSTL women, nor were they overly stubborn. Even if they had support when they reached their goals, I had the feeling that they could have done it on their own.

While I liked Isabella quite a lot, I was less enchanted with Joe. Supposedly, this guy was a sensitive, smart, ahead-of-his-time doctor. However, his perception of the sisters, both Clarissa and Isabella was way off.  And his initial obsession with Clarissa was just a little icky. By the way, Clarissa is an unlikable woman in this book, and I didn’t like her very much when she had her own book, The Mysterious Lord Millcroft.

Spoiler: Just so you know the villain from the previous books gets his just desserts in this story.

Overall, this was my least favorite of the Wild Warriner series, and that was due mainly to the hero. I was never able to like him. But don’t let that stop you, this is still a good read.

Time/Place: Regency England
Sensuality: Warm