All that heiress Katherine de Montrain wants is to stay in control of her estates and assist her cousin, who masquerades as the notorious Robin Hood. Though she is forced for wed Lord Damian Montjoy for her own protection, she vows she will never submit to him.
This is a pretty entertaining historical romance which was originally published in the 1990s. This is a bit of a weird time in the genre, as plots were shifting from the more violent and dubiously consensual bodice rippers to the more banter-heavy, light-hearted romances of recent times. Damsel in Distress is subject to some odd moments because of that change, but eventually finds its footing.
I enjoyed the adventurous plot, and the connections to the Robin Hood legend. The villain is properly dastardly, but the main conflict in this book is that husbands have an awful lot of power over their wives, and Kat naturally does not trust Damian, of whom she’s formed a bad first impression, to have her best interests at heart.
The book does have a bit of a slow middle where Damian and Kat are alone in a cabin forever, and my attention started to lag at that point. But after that I found myself swept up in the story, and was pretty surprised at one point to realize that I had stopped finding Damian an machismo knob and actually liked him. The double identity drama of Damian and the Silver Sword goes on a little long, but I enjoyed how it ended up resolved too.
I’m also curious what the stats are regarding heros named Damian in Romancelandia versus real life. I feel like every other book is about Damian. Are they all the same one?
