I would encourage others to try this book unless of course rape scenes makes them too squeamish. These things might smack of a very low rating but honestly most of the book was just fabulous. This was part of McNaught's plot plan but I would have loved to see more romance once the I Do's were stated. Once they were married the friendship ended. Unfortunately I found their interactions as friends part of the book was better then once they were married. Together I thought they were fantastic friends. His background, which had been explained previously, was to just explain away his being an ass with no inner reflection on his part. Yet no declaration of him admitting he was a shit and the reason why (maybe scared?). Of course he declares his love for Tory but then says to her that he has loved her since she arrived at his doorstep. Oh there was an epiphany, but his about face came before it. After seeing this pattern happen through a good chunk of the book I was pretty surprised that towards the end, it was if a switch was flipped and he had some kind of life altering epiphany which I felt I had missed. Then something would happen and set him back to square one. I could see Tory's influence in Jason and could see him opening up to Tory and experiencing fun and laughter that his life had been missing. I loved Jason (tortured hero anyone?) and completely understood his actions. This alone was not why I rated the book a 4 instead of a 5. I really had to take the book for what it was back in the 80's and try not to compare it to my today standards. Many modern romances do have rapes in the books but back in the day the rape was usually a whole Luke and Laura from General Hospital thing instead of today's rape scenes being about the heroine being raped and the hero coming to her emotional or physical rescue. Things that were 'accepted' in the 80's in romance books are not the norm now.

While written 20 years ago it does have a slight dated feel but definitely not too bad. Still a good book, bordering on very good. The last 50 pages or so, unfortunately, dropped the book to 4. Most of the way through the book I was so absorbed in it that I though for sure it was a 5 star book.

Once and Always by Judith McNaught