I'm normally a fan of Bertice Small's work. She usually has great plot, characters, action, and romance. And while her novel, Lara, contains all four of those things, I would hesitate to use the word 'great'. I honestly read about half of the book before stopping. I think it was just a long, grudging read. Nothing good happened to her and after awhile it was just...repetitive. Not one of her finer works.