Once you through the rather florid prose style, "Once a Hero" turned out to be a very entertaining read. The story is a good and intriguing one and Rafe and Rebecca were both likable and engaging characters. As for the romantic relationship that develops between Rafe and Rebecca, it was vibrant, exciting and fairly brimming with sexual tension. Some readers, however, may find Rebecca's desire to find and keep the stolen ruby very distasteful, but, unfortunately, her desire to find and sell the ruby, and her belief that the ruby is rightfully her's because her father had figured out where to steal it from, was in keeping with the times. My advice, if you're looking for a good and entertaining read, is to overlook the overblown prose style and the heroine's less upright tendencies and concentrate on the fast paced and exciting adventure at hand.
There's some very nice humor; Rafe is a good hero; and the heroine is quite likable except for her desire to hang onto stolen property as though she deserves it. Perhaps it's supposed to be symbolic of the corrupting influence of the gem (the curse), but it doesn't really work. Nevertheless, Rafe and Rebecca are very good together. The romance part of the book is quite good, and is marred only by the subplot and by Boyle's overblown prose.
Rebecca will have to take a page from her own book to keep the dashing Rafe Danvers from spoiling her success.
But how does one play hard-to-get with a man one cannot resist?
Rebecca Tate never intended to cause a revolution with her notoriously popular Miss Darby novels, merely to earn enough to support herself and her ailing uncle. But now it seems every eligible debutante in London is emulating her spunky heroine and refusing to marry...ever! Still, Rebecca's enjoying her newfound success as Miss Darby's anonymous creator, and she's not about to let anyone interfere?not even the rakishly appealing Raphael Danvers.
Having survived the perils of war and espionage, Rafe is less than thrilled by a disgruntled society matron's wish that he unmask the unknown author and halt the scandalous scribblings. The assignment becomes more attractive, however, when the trail leads to the enticing Miss Tate. Suddenly the dashing adventurer can't get enough of the charming troublemaker?and her resorting to some rather Darbyesque trickery to distract him serves only to intensify his desire. But will a rogue's determined pursuit result in a happy romantic ending . . . or lead them both into a dangerous intrigue?