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Rating: ★★★★ | 384 pages | Avon | Historical Romance | 1/30/2018 | Buy now !
*Trigger Warning: discussion of infanticide and sexual assault
So first of all, Mick Trewlove is just about as uncommon a historical hero name as you can get. Which is all well and good because he’s no hero. Born illegitimate and abandoned he is saved by the impoverished widow takes mercy on him and a gaggle of other illegitimate children, creating the hodge podge family Mick would do anything for.
In his thirty one years Mick has come up in the world. He’s gone from collecting dust, to making bricks, to now building glorious hotels with said bricks. Now he’s out for revenge on the duke who cast him aside. He wants to take everything, including the duke’s beautiful young orphaned ward Lady Aslyn who has a burning desire for something she isn’t sure she’ll find in her fiance.
I like a good Victorian romance novel where characters can be more than just born and bred aristocracy. Trewlove is self made, industrious and a little rough around he edges. Lady Aslyn and Mick’s attraction is forbidden by society because Mick and his siblings (ahem sequel bait) are illegitimate and the politics of legitimacy sets up a lot of the tension in this book.
When you have a hero using the heroine for revenge you generally want there to be a good grovel, I was waiting for it but it never quite came, but I think the devastating twist ending (slightly based on a true story) was more than enough for Mick to deserve his HEA.
Oh, a beard. Did I mention out hero has like a full on beard ? I can’t say I’ve come across that in a historical before, and I’m actually disappointed the cover didn’t go full on Captain Beard. Also, I just could not unsee that Mick was a wealthy real estate developer who puts his names on the hotels he builds. Just throwing it out there.
Aslyn is technically engaged when she and Mick begin spending time together, and I know some readers will see this as cheating but it didn’t really bother me. Speaking of Aslyn’s fiance, he could have so easily been a Disposable Fiance. He has a big drinking and gambling problem but instead of it being used as a plot device to make him a villain, it’s treated like an actual problem that he needs to fight and I like that Aslyn and Mick both want to support him.
A dark side of British politics gets played out against a sweeping romance with full characters and unbeatable odds.
The next book is about Mick’s adopted sister, Gillie, who is a tomboy and tavern owner who helps an injured duke find his missing bride. GIVE IT TO ME NOW. Dat COVER
*ARC received from K.E via Avon Addicts