I Need to Stop Re-reading Teenage Favorites. A Review of "A Rose in Winter"

When I read this as a teenager, I thought it was the best romance EVAH. My little adolescent heart swooned at the idea of a gorgeous man who was kind and intelligent and willing to do anything to win the heart of his chosen fair maiden. (Mostly because the really good-looking guys in my high-school were generally genial, beer-addled horndogs.)

Rereading it as an adult was a study in disenchantment. Erienne is a hopeless, shallow snob without any sense of loyalty. For all of her supposed education she is pretty stupid to fall for the ridiculous ruse perpetrated by the erstwhile hero. The writing also has a marked tendency to veer into purple prose. This would have been a much higher ranking from my teenage self--as it stands, I can only give it 2 stars now. I should have left the damn thing on the shelf and let the teenage me have her adolescent fantasies intact.