Series: Lost Lords of London, #3
Traits & Tropes: second chance; couple is already married; titled hero
Genre/Setting: Historical; London, England
Publication Date: 11/17/20
Heat Level: 3/5
Rating: 2/5
As little more than a child, Dare Grey left his privileged life for what seemed a grand adventure to help the oppressed of East London. Rather than coming into his noble title as Marquess of Milford, he became a king of thieves. But upon his inevitable capture, this Robin Hood of East London is left with few options and must agree to a rather distasteful contract: his grandfather, a powerful duke, will free Dare from the noose, but only if he accepts his birthright as marquess, finds a wife, and sees his sister safely married off.
Unbeknownst to his family, Dare already has a wife. Temperance Swift married Dare for protection from her violent drunkard of a father. But Dare would not abandon his thievery in his determination to provide for others and Temperance refused to stand by while her husband would up imprisoned or executed. Breaking her own heart, she fled London, finding a place for herself as a seamstress, a safe and respectable, if lonely, existence.
When Dare offers her a fortune if she resumes her role as his wife, Temperance knows she can’t refuse, for her brother’s sake and to keep Dare from thieving. Once they’re back under the same roof, the connection between Dare and Temperance reignites as if no time has passed, but their every interaction is tainted by painful past mistakes, and a devastating secret Temperance has kept to herself. As before, their love may not be enough to keep them together.
As a rule, I enjoy reading about couples who are already married. It’s often endearing to see that reconnection and improved communication. That’s not what happened here and this one just didn’t quite work for me. The subject matter is quite dark in several aspects so at first I thought perhaps it was just the wrong time for me to be reading it, but the more I read, the more I realized this had several other issues that were throwing me off. I think my main problem boils down to this heroine. Yes, she had an incredibly sad and tragic history, but she kept Dare in the dark for far too long about things he had every right to know. Yes, there were times in which Dare failed to be what she needed, but she also wasn’t willing to delve into his issues and try to figure out why that might be. She was utterly perplexed as to why Dare didn’t believe himself worthy of love and had such a generally low sense of self-worth and all the while she was almost constantly berating him for his shortcomings and enumerating all the things he’d done wrong. Perhaps much of their issues could’ve been avoided if she’d been more open with him about her feelings as well. Instead, it was like these two just went around in circles and never got anywhere. I felt like I read the same dialogues and inner monologues from both MCs over and over again and it just became tedious and overly dramatic. There was also an issue of lack of believability in one of the key plot points: there’s no way a marquess would’ve been arrested and held in Newgate for bribery. This just would’ve have happened with that rank and I also felt like this scene just felt gratuitous and didn’t truly do anything to advance or improve the plot. That’s a less important point, but it was the addition of insult to injury for me on this one.
I desperately wanted to like Dare and Temperance as a couple, but she just pushed him away repeatedly, so much so that their relationship seemed much the same in the end as it had in the beginning. Dare underwent significant character development and Temperance somehow really didn’t, despite all the emotional upheaval she experienced. I also felt like I needed more from the ending, not necessarily an epilogue, but just more, especially wit regards to Dare’s grandmother and the stability of his and Temperance’s future together. Temperance came off as a bit fickle to me so their HEA needed a bit more shoring up to be wholly satisfactory for me. Overall, I got tired of Temperance harping on all reasons they couldn’t be together, even after Dare got his act straight and came into his own in the role he was always meant to occupy (which was also a very long time coming.) this is one of my favorite authors, but I don’t expect to like every single book. This one fell flat for me, but I still look forward to what’s next.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
https://www.bookbub.com/reviews/4208607563
Comments
Post a Comment