The Flame and the Flower by Kathleen E. Woodiwiss

Because this is her first book, I will forgive her. But she better not have any more books like this one. I wouldn't call this book awful, but nor would I say it was good. I'm ok with wounded heroes and heroines, but seriously, this was a little much. The hero was all over the place, personality wise. He was an ass, then he was a jackass, then he was a jerky jackass, then he was sort of nice, then mean, then sweet, then loving.... the man could not decide what kind of guy he was. He was so inconsistent I NEVER knew what he was going to do next. He never followed through on any threats, and he irritated the crap out of me. I came up with several ways I thought he should die in the first 100 pages of the book, but he got moderately better after that. The poor heroine was a pitiful abused woman. I thought she was a little inconsistent too, though not as bad. Over all I would not recommend this book except in the case of extreme boredom.