Series: Pennyroyal Green, #3
Traits & Tropes: second chance; mystery; scarred hero; widowed heroine
Publication Date: 07.28.09
Genre/Setting: Historical; Regency; London, England
Heat Level: 4
Rating: 3.5/5
Narration Rating: 3/5
Captain Chase Eversea has made a name for himself as a bold, brilliant military officer and war hero, but it hasn’t left him unscarred. Trouble always seems to find him and that is certainly the case when he’s summoned to an obscure London museum by a mysterious woman who of course turns out to be the very woman who nearly destroyed his military career with their attraction. She’s also the one woman he’s never quite been able to forget.
Rosalind March isn’t the same young officer’s wife who craved attention and flirtation five year ago. Now she’s a cool and calmly capable widow but has reached the limits of her ability to find her missing sister and Chase is the only one she can think of who might be able to help her. Chase is reluctant but his honor wins out as he agrees to help, against his better judgment. Their search takes them to seedy areas of London and the time spent together makes it clear that the passionate attraction between them is still very much intact if they’re willing to give it a chance to grow into something more.
It took a bit for me to really get drawn into this story, but I think a lot of that was because I was listening on audio and was not the biggest fan of the narrator. I liked Chase as a hero, mainly for his sheer competence, and I especially loved his scenes with Colin. Chase showed excellent character development and I loved that he wound up being unafraid of his feelings for Rosalind and willing to put them out there. In fact, it was Rosalind who was afraid to risk her heart, but she showed excellent self-awareness in realizing this and it was so satisfying to me that these two truly chose each other. In this way, their bond seemed especially solid and strong. The romance did take a backseat to the mystery aspect here though and while Chase and Rosalind did spend a good deal of time together, their more intimate scenes mostly felt like random afterthoughts and didn’t fit the flow of the story. I was glad that, although this is a second chance story, there wasn’t an undue amount of focus placed on their past indiscretion and the mystery here is largely what helped move the plot away from that, so it mostly worked. The mutual pining and sexual tension aspects were very well developed, I just wanted a bit more devotion to the actual romance to make this more special. I liked that Chase was strong and protective of Rosalind but also very respectful of her and her right to make her own decisions. Overall, this one wasn’t my favorite, but I still loved the writing style and enjoyed the story.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3989004832
https://www.bookbub.com/reviews/1138325092
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