Another one on my quest to read the first 100 HPs. This one is numbered 92 and was published in 1973. This is the 40th one I've read. Only 60 to go. So it takes place in Portugal so that gives it a boost right there. The repressed attitudes attributed to the Portuguese seemed extreme from this far away but I feel like were fairly on point for 1973. Even when I was there in 1980 there was a definite break between those who were considered the good girls and those who were considered bad girls. Also those of a higher social class were even then very severe and IDK snooty?

Moving on. The story was interesting and moved along at the good pace. The hero and heroine as in all these older HPs do not spend a whole lot of time together but I felt it was sufficient to make the romance element fairly believable. The hero is the one with scars and the heroine's words and actions do seem to help him overcome his very negative feelings about them. She's a happy go lucky sort and does help loosen all the repressed nobles up a bit. The OW element was pretty darn lame and I think the author would have been better served to come up with a more believable was to cause the climatic break at the end. But all's well that end's well. The end was pretty satisfying long enough to give some good feels. ( )