Mountain Laurel - Jude Deveraux I do believe I continued to read this just to irritate myself. Why else would I suffer through an insufferable arrogant alpha-man who whines, complains, and dresses up in an itty bitty leather thing and war paint in a piss-poor attempt to frighten off the heroine? Silly man. And all this happens within the first several pages of the book.

Apparently, Mr. Ring Montgomery has PO'd not only me but his colonel who has forced him to escort an opera singer safely into the dangerous gold mines. He thinks this job far below his puffed up self and decides to be a complete jerk to Maddie Worth (whose stage name is LaReina, The Singing Duchess). She doesn't immediately simper and fall at his feet so I continue to listen along.

A little later:
This book was written in the late 80's/early 90's, if I'm not mistaken, and for that reason I am not going to be as critical as I would be if it were a recent release. Though there isn't all that much happening besides lots of chatter and wandering about the wilderness, the alpha hero isn't quite as bad as I'd initially feared and the story was mildy amusing though not at all "freakin' hilarious" as an Amazon reviewer promised. But I'm a grouch so you have to take that into consideration.

I particularly liked the fact that the heroine was an opera singer and that her voice was almost a character in itself but overall this isn't a keeper sort of book that I'd reread. It's very slow and gets a little odd towards the end when lust begins to override all commonsense. .