Hello everyone!
It's an incredibly good thing that I've made it a habit to watch certain TV shows only in the evenings, because otherwise I highly doubt I'd get anything done at all. Namely, focusing on anything besides the way these people run around on screen is a bit of a challenge, all in all.
Still!
I have a new book review for you, and I have to say, I'm actually much farther ahead with the book series than this will show, as well.
Owning a Kobo e-reader means that, on occasion, I will lurk around online to see some good book deals. I've also registered a Bookbub (shameless advertising right here), which is AMAZING for people who don't want to spend tons of money on e-books, not to mention you find pretty much anything and everything you might want! Depending on how you choose to set it up, you get emails with book offers, and the one I'm reviewing today came with that.
Danelle Harmon wasn't initially on my watch list and I really only hit the download button on her book, The Wild One, because it was free.
Then I realised it's just the beginning of the series, fell in love with the characters, and here we are!
As I said, this is book one in a series of a total five main books, with one novella midway through and one post-main books short story about Christmas time, which I've yet to get to.
The stories center on the powerful De Montforte family in England, ruled with an iron fist by the eldest brother, Lucien, His Grace the Duke, and he needs to keep a close eye on all his younger siblings: Charles, Gareth, Andrew and Nerissa. Unfortunately, the previous Duke, their father, had fallen down the steps from his own tower and broke his neck, while their mother succumbed to childbed fever, leaving Lucien in charge of his family at roughly ten years of age, with three toddling brothers and a newly-born sister.
Each member of the family have their own nickname of sorts, which was given to them by the villagers they preside over: Charles is the Beloved one, Gareth is the Wild One, Andrew is the Defiant one, and Nerissa is the Wayward one.
And Lucien?
Well, a lot of the time descriptions of him will say he's only ever in black, rides a horse straight out of Hell, and neither God nor Satan want to cross his path (or plans), so he's quite aptly nicknamed the Wicked One.
Therefore, let's begin with Gareth's story!
This is happening during the time of the American Independence War, in which Charles is serving as an officer for the Royal Army. He stumbles upon Juliet Paige, falls in love with her, gets her pregnant and betrothed to him, then unfortunately dies in the fighting, leaving the girl alone and in mourning, with nowhere to go once it's known she sympathised with a royalist.
So, as soon as her daughter Charlotte is old enough to travel, Juliet packs her things and comes to England in search of her late betrothed's family, only to end up in a highway robbery right before Gareth stumbles on the lot of them.
Gareth, the brother who could never live up to the perfection that was Charles, tends to drink and cavort his nights away with his best friends, the Den of Debauchery, and they'd just been racing along the road when he comes across the highwaymen and gets tangled in the situation. Sadly, he also gets himself shot in the process, but not to worry! Juliet patches him up enough until his friends arrive, and together they spirit him off home, to the family castle.
There, Juliet meets the rest of them, including intimidating and diabolical Lucien, who Gareth for some reason wants to protect her from.
She doesn't quite understand this until it becomes clear he's one of those people who don't get irritated by ANYTHING, irritate everyone else, and has them obeying his every whim with the twitch of an eyebrow (can you tell I love him already?).
Anyway, Gareth and Juliet slowly grow closer, despite the fact that Juliet is confused and hurt that she's forgetting Charles in favour of his brother. Top that with Lucien denying taking Charlotte on as his ward, and she decides to pack her bags and leave. At the same time, Gareth had tried Lucien's patience one too many times (something about painting a statue's, ahem, private parts purple ...) and he threatened to send Juliet away if he went close to her.
Obviously, when Gareth figures out she's gone, he tears away after her, promising to marry her and take care of both her and her daughter.
Juliet, while confused, accepts because she's practical enough to know they need protection, even if she quickly realises she's going to need to teach the frivolous and easygoing Gareth a thing or two. They have only a few choices, really, or realistically only one: while Juliet is all for going back to Lucien, Gareth will see Hell on this Earth before that happens, wishing to prove to his brother he can make something of himself.
So, what he does is go into pugilism, aka, old time boxing for money.
He moves his young family to the dower house which stands on an estate that used to be part of the De Montforte lands until their grandfather gambled it away, and starts with his job (without actually telling his new wife what he's up to.)
Lucien, of course, never let them out of his sight while in London, but lost trace of them after their move and is frantically searching when Juliet's message reaches him about Gareth getting himself in to deep; she was fine with him fighting (more or less) if it was on fair terms, but soon enough they stumble over some sort of conspiracy in which Gareth's opponents are almost always drugged before they go to fight him, giving him the easy wins. Things come to a head when one of them dies from laudanum overdose, making Gareth think it's his employer who's behind this.
He is, however, unhappy that his big brother arrived (although reading about how Gareth's employer tried to talk the Duke out of riding right over him was funny beyond belief), though Juliet points out what she's been able to deduce pretty well: Lucien is here because he worries, and cares.
The two brothers have a long overdue heart to heart, and Lucien leaves Gareth to settle this on his own, although with the big, big duel coming up with someone who would quite easily break the man in two, everything suddenly heats up a notch.
Juliet begs Gareth not to fight, telling him that if he does, she's packing and leaving him, Charlotte included, but Gareth goes on to fight anyway, supported by his friends who've finally made an appearance (probably because Lucien kicked them to doing so, since one of them, Chilcot, was actually his informant who tagged after Gareth all the while), and his brother because Lucien obviously couldn't stay away.
The fight would have gone very, very badly for Gareth if not for a great deal of luck, perseverance, and just plain stubborness since Gareth needs to be taken off the stage by Lucien proper afterwards, but the gambling scheme and the laudanum are exposed, Gareth's employer is taken straight to the gaol (Lucien's barrister friend sees to that), and Juliet and Gareth finally settle the last of their differences, becoming landowners of that same estate in their own right. Gareth also goes on to Parliament as a voted member, and Juliet becomes pregnant with their first child.
And Lucien?
Well, Lucien is pleased with himself for orchestrating the whole thing, since he was literally behind every single thread in the book (minus the boxing one) and making sure that the pair ended together. And it's precisely because of Lucien that I kept on reading since book four is HIS story - and I can't wait to hear all about it!
OH.
Also.
Charles is actually alive, and on his way back home from America. Talk about a say, what??
If you haven't read this book yet, I highly recommend it since it's quite funny and charming, and has the kind of family bonds that I always enjoy reading about (let's ignore the cover because ... Harlequin romance). The writing style evolves a little bit and becomes better in following books (not that it's too bad in the first one!) and that also makes it worth your while. Period England is such a fun thing to read about, too. You'll also probably fall in love with Lucien just as much as everyone else, and who could blame you?
Besides. There can never be too many Dukes of Blackheath in our lives.
xx
*image not mine
No comments:
Post a Comment