I have to say the sex to keep warm situation is just awful and so gross. ( )

These cowardly and foolish characters butt heads and sabotage their chance at happiness at every turn for an entire book. The actual writing and dialogue wasn't bad, so I'm not going to give it just a single star, but it was an awfully frustrating experience, and I'm glad it's over.

Content Warning spoiler Miscarriage on page.

The characters having sex, as apparently the only way!, to not freeze to death, (in a cabin for single night with a flame and at least one cot to burn, plus a blanket and large dog for additional warmth) was so entirely preposterous that it was difficult to move past. It would have been a tad more buyable if they had planned to just strip naked to share body heat and then one thing led to another, but it was beyond everything that they set out from the getgo to have sex as their way to survive the night. I ended up deciding that while they seemed determined to put hurdles in their own way, unconsciously they were sabotaging the sabotage, lol, by creating circumstances where they would *have* to be together. It's the only way two people convinced that they can't even stand the other would possibly go along with the notion of 'we must have sex or else we will freeze to death'. Honestly they're kind of idiots. ( )

Una amarga rivalidad separa a los Woodfall y los Hayes desde hace casi un siglo, pero las iras de los adultos no lograron impedir que los niñ,os Moira Hayes y Kenneth Woodfall compartieran juegos de infancia. Cuando Kenneth regresa de la guerra, Moira se ha convertido en toda una dama y é,l no tarda en darse cuenta de que inocente amistad infantil se ha convertido en algo mucho má,s profundo. Por desgracia, Moira está, comprometida con un primo lejano, el baró,n Edwin Baillie, tan interesado en heredar las propiedades de los Hayes como de terminar con las luchas con los Woodfall. Pero una noche de tormenta, la joven Moira se ve obligada a refugiarse con Kenneth en una aislada cabañ,a, y lo que habí,a empezado como el recuerdo de una travesura juvenil pasa a convertirse en una pasió,n arrasadora, que amenaza con destruir para siempre la frá,gil paz que existe entre ambas familias.

This is another of Ms. Balogh's older books. This trilogy has a lot of Jane Austen character types in it. Here, Sir Edwin Baillie reminds the reader of Mr. Collins or Sir Walter Eliot with his pomposity and good-hearted ridiculousness. But the main story is about Moira and Kenneth, scions torn apart due to a Romeo and Juliet type feud.
It took me almost to the end of the book to like the hero and heroine. They fight, nastily and a lot. Yes, it's due to that 'love being the other side of hate' trope, but it's hard to see it here. And the scene where they're caught in the snowstorm was clearly because they wanted to have sex, not just stay warm, so it came off pretty silly. It's pretty obvious that they are two people in denial.
But Ms. Balogh writes a good story and the couple got there in the end, despite all. ( )

I enjoyed reading this but felt that there was some lacking. Moira and Kenneth have a huge backstory that we barely understand until the last few pages; it almost felt like there’s a prequel out in the ether. Trigger warning for miscarriage and everything dealing with it, but I’m glad it was discussed over two decades ago in romance as it’s only finally being discussed now. ( )