Let me start by saying I am a big fan of Victoria Holt. However, I was disappointed with this one. I didn't actually read the book, I listened to it on audiotapes. So, perhaps the effect wasn't quite as good. I don't know.

The storyline was very prototypical Holt - a young teacher accompanies her pupil to France and falls in love with her father, the Comte. I was not very impressed with the hero - some may call him an "alpha male", but I would probably have a stronger term than that. The plot was so predictable, which contributed to the disappointment. Not that I hadn't found some of her other books predictable - but they seemed to work. This didn't for me.

Perhaps I also didn't like having a young girl paired up with a man old enough to be her father. In fact, her stepdaughter was around her own age. I'm too much of a realist (at this stage in my life) to believe these two characters could make this relationship work.