Untouched - Anna Campbell

Okay, the romance reading challenge strikes again!  This time, we're examining the "virgin hero" category.  I read a couple of books trying to fulfill this, finding that I had been misled, the issue of the hero's virginity doesn't come up, etc.  So I went to a list!  Unfortunately, most of the books that I was interested in, I had already read, and I really try to read new titles for my reading challenges.  But Untouched was on the list, and the library had it, so it became my choice.

This is an interesting historical romance because it doesn't take place among ton society, or a country manor, or any of the usual settings.  Instead, it takes place in a walled compound with some grounds, a garden, and a small cottage, and remains there for most of the book--there are only a few segments that take place beyond it.  Why is this?  Because the book starts with the heroine, Grace, being kidnapped and delivered to the "mad" Matthew, Lord Sheene, to "entertain" him on orders from his uncle.  But Matthew doesn't want to be "entertained" even though he's been locked up since the age of fourteen, when he was the victim of a bad illness that gave his uncle, Matthew's guardian since the death of his parents, the room needed to make a grab at the family fortune and influence.

It's established pretty quickly that Matthew isn't actually mad, though he's understandably pretty ornery and doesn't want to let his uncle "win" by sleeping with a woman said uncle's goons provided.  Why this would be letting him win, I don't know; you can have sex with someone you're locked up with (as long as they want to have sex with you!) and still want to escape, the two conditions are not mutually exclusive unless, apparently, you're Matthew.  As far as heroes go, Matthew wasn't exactly my favorite.  He's an outright bastard to Grace, flip-flopping between believing her about her origins (or what she shares of them) and accusing her of being the worst sort of whore (which is problematic for other reasons, but now is not the time).  He's nasty and has none of the charm of most historical romance heroes, until they sleep together, at which point he quickly becomes an amazing lover and a very charming individual.  Because Sex Magic, I guess?  And he swears that he loved Grace at the first instant he saw her...despite being downright awful to her for so long, which, really, does not seem to indicate instant love.  He does demonstrate instant lust, but definitely not love.  However, the two seem to be hopelessly confused in this book, which even Grace admits at one point.

As for Grace...she was kind of vanilla.  She had a bit of an interesting background leading up to her kidnapping, but her own actions mostly include being victimized by people, wearing scanty clothing, and pining over a guy she's convinced she can't have even though he only wants to be with her.  She doesn't even want to escape from her confinement unless Matthew comes with her.  I didn't actively dislike Grace, but there was nothing that made me want to really root for her except a general distaste for Matthew's slimy uncle and his goons.

Matthew and Grace undeniably had physical chemistry, but beyond that, there wasn't a lot of development of their relationship; as I mentioned before, Campbell tries to later justify this with a "love at first sight" explanation, but that is not how it reads.  I would have liked to see a little bit more of the "getting to know you" phase of the relationship, some banter, something between them other than lust disguised as love.

Overall, this was an okay book.  It didn't have the same feel to it as most historical romance books, which was interesting--different is always interesting--and I commend Campbell for that, but it also lacked some of the spark that I look for in historical romances.  Would I read Campbell again?  Eh, maybe.  Still undecided on that front!

2 stars out of 5.