Series: Sins for All Seasons, #3
Tropes & Traits: wrong side of the tracks; reunited/second chance; emotional; illegitimate hero
Genre/Setting: Historical; Victorian; England, 1871
Publication Date: 02.26.19
Heat Level: 3/5
Rating: 3/5
Finn Trewlove was taken in and raised with love by a former baby farmer, but he can never forget his status as the bastard son of a notorious earl. Despite not being of her world, as he grew up Finn spent many clandestine evenings with an earl’s daughter. He fell in love with her and they promised each other forever, but of course it all ended in betrayal and a stint in prison for Finn.
Lady Lavinia Kent seeks to atone for the darkness in her past by rescuing abandoned children in some of London’s worst neighborhoods. She’s inspired by the young man who once held her heart, even if he did break it by abandoning her.
When the two meet again, the attraction between them is still there, but so is a deep resentment. After they learn the truth about behind their separation eight years ago, Finn and Lavinia must both decide if trying to start again is worth the risk.
After how much I’ve enjoyed the other books in this series, I must say this one was a disappointment for me. I know she suffered terribly, but I just couldn’t bring myself to like Lavinia and every time she started to grow on me even a little, she’d do something else to turn me off all over again. I just kept thinking poor, lovestruck Finn deserved better. The “secret” here was drawn out way too long for me and was just needless. Lavinia kept things from Finn that he had every right to know. In fact, Lavinia spent most of the book coming up with reasons why she and Finn couldn’t be together, none of which even made any sense, all the while she just kept twisting the knife deeper and deeper into him and simultaneously lamenting how guilty she felt about what he’d suffered. After everything he went through, Finn deserved more from her and for most of the book Lavinia wasn’t even willing to meet him halfway. Lavinia kept harping about how she and Finn had changed too much to be together again, but there were multiple times she showed herself to be just as spoiled and selfish as she was in her life among the nobility, lashing out at Finn when he was also hurting. Beyond that, I found that I really disliked how this story was told in a series of flashbacks as it just gave me this awful sense of foreboding, knowing what terrible things were coming, that I just found depressing. The emotion here was intense, but I just wasn’t drawn into the story, although the writing and narration were good. I never felt the real connection between Finn and Lavinia, and what little I did glean came mostly from Finn. I do appreciate that Lavinia was ultimately trying to help children, but her single-minded focus meant that she failed to show that same devotion to Finn and that threw me off and made me not believe in their connection. This had good points, but I wanted more from it; even the ending felt a bit abrupt and I wanted some punishment for Lavinia’s terrible mother and more closure for Finn about his own parentage. I’m a fan of this series, but this story just didn’t quite do it for me.
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