A Relentless Rake by Anna Harrington

On By BarbaraIn Barb's Reviews, Part of a Series, Regency Era (1811-1820)Leave a comment

A Relentless Rake (Lords of the Armory, #4)Barbara’s rating: 5 of 5 Stars
Series: Lords of the Armory #4
Publication Date: 3/29/22
Period: Regency
Number of Pages: 329

Oh! My Goodness! The sinister organization, Scepter, is still causing havoc in London. While the men of the Armory and the Home Office are circling closer and closer, they still have absolutely no idea who is leading the organization. It is a peer – they are sure – and a very well-placed one who has recruited spies and operatives at every level of the government and the military. There is even a mole in the Home Office. The current threat is a rumored attempt on the Prime Minister’s life. Can they thwart the threat, protect the prime minister, and maybe, this time, put an end to Scepter?

Alexander (Alec) Sinclair, the Earl of St James, along with his wrong-side-of-the-blanket half-brother Nathaniel Reed are assigned the task of tracking down a mathematician whose name they found on the only piece of evidence they have against Scepter. This mathematician is a schoolmaster whose dearest wish is to have a fellowship in the Royal Society but is he a willing participant in the plot against the prime minister or an innocent dupe.

Alec had a cruel and abusive father and that has left a permanent mark on Alec’s psyche. He detests liars – people who hide who they really are and present an entirely different picture of themselves. When he meets the sister of their suspect, she presents herself as a prim, proper, strait-laced schoolmistress – but is she? Is she in the plot with her brother?

Olivia Everett has a loving and giving heart, but she harbors a deep secret that would ruin her, her brother, and their school should it ever get out. Even though their school is struggling, Olivia keeps taking in charity cases, but resources are thinner and thinner. Her brother, Henry, has always been there to support her and back her. So, when he goes missing for multiple days, she goes looking for him – in the most dangerous part of the city – at midnight. When she is accosted by thugs, a masked man comes to her rescue. Why isn’t she afraid of the masked man?

I absolutely adored both Olivia and Alec and thoroughly believed they were perfect for each other. They both were carrying deep, dark secrets that would only hurt others if they were found out. The attraction was immediate and grew and grew and grew over the course of the book. The chemistry is there and the love comes as surely as the sun each morning. My only wish is that the book didn’t stop where it did. I hate it when a book ends with the proposal and doesn’t carry through with a wedding and possibly some future scenes.

I hope you will give this book a read and that you’ll enjoy it as much as I did.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an Advanced Reader Copy (ARC) of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

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Tempted by a Governess by Jane Charles

On By TracyIn Georgian Era (1714-1837), Part of a Series, Regency Era (1811-1820), Tracy's ReviewsLeave a comment

Tempted by a Governess (To Love a Governess, book 2)Tempted by a Governess by Jane Charles

Tracy’s rating: 4 of 5 stars

Series: To Love a Governess, #2

Release Date: March 22, 2022

When her father died, Katrina Carrick inherited his bookshop/lending library and his debts. It was with a sad heart that she realized that she would have to sell all the books to pay the debts and seek employment. Having worked as a governess before, she answered an advert from the Viscountess Melcombe in Willanton England. She then gets the news that Lord Timothy Strotham, the youngest son of the Marquess of Shomberg is interested in purchasing her stock. Katrina invites him to examine the books but is not prepared for her reaction to him.

Lord Timothy has been restless, he is not suited for the clergy or the army, but tutoring and teaching at Oxford brought him no joy, so he has decided to open a lending library in the town of Middleton where he owns a small estate. He learns of the book sale and travels to Scotland to meet the owner. He is shocked to learn that the owner is not only a woman but a young, single, and very attractive woman.

Over the next couple of weeks, these two get to know each other and the attraction intensifies, but neither of them is in a position to pursue a relationship and try to ignore the sexual tension that is growing stronger each day. Timothy is firm in his resolve to keep his dealings with Katrina strictly in the friend zone, but Katrina has other plans. When she learns his estate is near to Willanton and that he is traveling there as soon as their business is completed, she figures she can kill two birds with one stone, she will ask Timothy to give her a ride to her interview and since she never plans to marry, she hopes to seduce him and experience passion before settling into a life of servitude. What could go wrong?

This was a well-written, fun novel with very likable characters who share an undeniable attraction yet for whom HEA doesn’t seem to be in the cards. The book is filled with smoldering attraction, risque reading material, a handfasting gone wrong, some warm love scenes, great secondary characters, some surprising twists and finally a HEA complete with an epilogue. This is the second book in the series, but it is loosely connected and this book could easily be read as a standalone title.

*I am voluntarily leaving a review for an eARC that I requested and was provided to me by the publisher. All opinions in this review are my own.*