I’d start with her newer books, which are excellent and don’t have the same issues. So if you haven’t read Chase’s books before, I would absolutely not start here. But I don’t think every reader will feel the same way. How Chase managed to make me still like Vere by the end, I don’t know. This book is probably the most blatant example of this (the scene where our protagonists meet includes a forced kiss as a display of power in front of an angry mob – it’s very icky). The way Chase has managed this difficulty is by having the heroes that take all kinds of presumptuous liberties and the heroines that jump enthusiastically in with both feet a second later. I think Chase’s books will either work for you or they won’t, especially the older books, before ideas of enthusiastic consent were really a thing. It takes very little for Vere to fall for this troublemaking bluestocking, but boy oh boy do shenanigans ensue. She keeps her distance from people too, but she refuses to ignore them in their time of need. Only when she does it, it’s to help people because she’s a goddamn Amazon both in appearance and temperament.
Then he meets Lydia Grenville whose life has been 10 times harder, who is just as stubborn, angry at everything, and prone to get herself into all sorts of trouble. Plot: Enormous-asshole-with-a-sob-story Vere Mallory has been drinking and whoring and gambling his way through life because the people he loves keep dying so he’s decided to stop loving people. The only thing that tones down an alphahole hero is an alphahole heroine, and this fine fine line is Chase’s sweet spot.
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