Grace Burrowes' "The Traitor" (#2 in the Captive Hearts series)
Did not finish. Could not get into either the heroine Milly's character or the hero Sebastian's character. Sebastian is supposed to be the torturer who almost drove the hero of the first book in this series, The Captive, to madness with his skill and ruthlessness in both physical and mental torture, but not a single inkling of that aspect of his character is shown in this story. Instead, he is shown as a sensitive soul with a passion for music and gardening. Milly is supposed to be illiterate (because of dyslexia) but talks and thinks like an English professor. In fact, practically everyone in this book talks and thinks like a boring professor (including the villain who is portrayed as practically an imbecile in the previous book) so I just could not engage with the story on any level. Too much telling, not enough showing of the characters.
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