Indiscretion by Hannah Fielding

It's 1950, and a British woman and novelist is going to meet her family in Spain for the first time. She's twenty-five and though she writes about love, she's yet to experience it herself. Her Spanish family is...strange...to the say the least. They are wealthy; they tolerate a wild group of Gypsies on their land; and all the women are terrible bitches, it seems, except Esmeralda, who is just a coward.

And Alexandra is just thrown into the middle of all their drama--the drama pretty much surrounding the incredibly good looking Salvador who is just oh so seductive...and crazy. He's got a secret baby, a fiance, and yet lusts after his cousin one min and tells her to go home five min later. That's pretty much the first 40%.

I wanted to like this book. I normally really enjoy the Spanish setting and the heroine is very independent. But I didn't like it. I abandoned at the halfway point, as the most exciting thing at that point was that someone shot an arrow at the heroine. I was actually cheering that something besides Salvador drama and lust was going on.

Things that put me off:
--It does NOT feel like 1950. Not even close. The novel mentions how backward Spain is and that they are still recovering from war, but it felt like Victorian days, even the way they dress. And while the Spanish may be stuck in the past, for Alexandra, a British lass, to be that way...in 1950??? No.
--The hero is a bipolar and runs hot then cold, hot then cold, and frankly, treats the heroine like crap. Her pining for this guy did her no favors with me.
--It's predictable. The costume, the man on the pier...I saw it all coming from the very first.
--The hero again...is obviously a man whore and Alexandra is this virginal angel...I hate that.
--Did I mention all the women are bitches? The grandmother, the gypsy, the stepmother, the stepsister, the Isabel lady. Everyone but the heroine and the maid Agusta pretty much.
--After all the cold reception, why didn't Alexandra just go home? What's keeping her in Spain? Her father never talks to her after the first day. I get she is always up for a challenge and fights for what she wants, but this guy is not worth it.

I just didn't like this. But I thank the publisher for sending me a digital file for review.