Series: Reluctant Heroes #2
Traits & Tropes: employer/employee; heroine in trouble
Publication Date: 03.29.22
Genre/Setting: Historical; Victorian; London/Yorkshire, England; Scotland, 1883
Heat Level: 0
Rating: 3/5
Barclay Howard has given up on finding true love for himself and it’s a good thing too since he’s now been saddled with the role of guardian to his six-year-old nephew, the heir to their grandfather’s earldom. He has no idea how to raise a child and now has no choice but to move to the family seat in Yorkshire to assess the situation. Unfortunately, before he can leave, he finds himself swept up in a raid of the free love meeting he’s attending and spends a night in jail when he’s captured whilst trying to save an innocent woman who’s unhappy with his rescue attempts. Unbeknownst to him, she’s about to make his life even more complicated.
Norah Capshaw was merely seeking refuge from the brutish man who’d been trailing her around the city, but her choice of hiding place in the free love meeting ends in her spending a night in jail, which sees her straight to losing her job as a tutor for adults. Unemployed and without any family, Norah is nonetheless determined to make it on her own, but when she crosses paths with Barclay again and it becomes apparent that staying in the city will be dangerous for her thanks to the man who continues to pursue her, she accepts Barclay’s offer of a position as tutor to his young nephew. She soon finds Barclay himself irresistible, despite her reservations about trusting him. The attraction between them grows even as it becomes apparent that the mysterious man from London is still following Norah, which leads to them investigating her routes in Scotland and the both of them finding much more than they’d ever expected.
This story was definitely a very slow burn, but given the abundance of tropes at play here, I didn’t have much trouble hanging in there with this story, even if the flow was a little odd at times. Given how the first book in this series was, I went into this one expecting good writing and prepared for low steam, but even I was a bit disappointed by the lack of any steam at all. With such good tension built between these two, it was just a letdown, especially since I think given how Barclay had always been treated poorly and like a beast, seeing a gentler side of him and having him finally get to experience love and physical affection would’ve been extra satisfying. I think I also needed them to have that closeness more just because of how mean women in general and the heroine especially had been to him (for no good reason), and I just wanted more vindication for him on that front. Which brings me to my mine gripe with this story: the heroine, Norah. She made some of the dumbest decisions she possibly could have over the course of this story. Sure, this gave Barclay the opportunity to rescue her and look good, but still, it brought a lot of eyerolls. She’s very suspicious of Barclay and set against him from the get-go but for no apparent reason when he’s done nothing but be a perfect gentleman and try his best to help her, despite her ungratefulness and hostility toward him.
Norah just played right into treating Barclay like a beast just like every other woman in his life before and that makes it hard to get behind her as a heroine. Even when she started to actually get to know him as a person, rather than judging his outward appearance, she was still annoyingly hesitant about it, which also seemed unfounded given his solicitousness towards her. Barclay is referred to as a beast incessantly but the only reason I find for it is that he’s very tall and I guess a couple of his teeth are a bit pointy and ‘wolfish,’ but many romance heroes are described as having wolfish smiles and being exceedingly large or tall, so I’m not exactly sure why it’s not also charming on him. These factors lessened the romance of this story immensely and when you add to that the large amount of focus that is placed on this terrible, bratty kid, it’s sometimes hard to remember that you’re actually reading a romance. Barclay does his best to stop the boy from being such an entitled brat and everyone else around him, especially Norah, undermines him every step of the way, expecting violence from him when he's given absolutely no indication, he is in any way prone to violence. I just found this to be absurd.
The latter half of the book almost felt like a completely different story as Norah, Barclay, and the boy, Elias, venture to Scotland. I loved that setting and the story did improve there, (though it was never so boring that I wanted to throw it down, even before that change). There was a liberal use of dramatic irony in this section that helped build the tension and reader interest, which did a lot to move the story along but sadly not much to remind you that it’s a romance you’re reading. Overall, I did think this was worth the read, despite my frustrations with it. I wanted to be shown more of the characters' development, but I enjoyed the writing style, and I’ll probably continue the series.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
https://www.bookbub.com/reviews/2959401561
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4296851565
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