Synopsis
Her first marriage was an epic failure.
Lady Avalon Warwyck never did love her husband. Arrogant, selfish, and cruel, it’s a blessing when she’s widowed and left to raise her son all by herself. Finally, Avalon can live freely and do the work she loves: helping fallen women become businesswomen. She’s lived these past ten years with no desire to remarry―that is, until Mr. Devan Farris comes to town.
Can he convince her to take another chance at happily ever after?
Devan Farris―charming vicar, reputed rake, and the brother of Avalon’s son’s guardian―is reluctantly sent to town to keep tabs on Avalon and her son. Devan wishes he didn’t have to meddle in her affairs; he’s not one to trod on a woman’s independent nature and keen sense of convictions. But she’ll have nothing to do with vicar with a wild reputation―even though he’s never given his heart and body to another. If only he could find a way to show Avalon who he really is on the inside―a good, true soul looking for its other half. But how can prove that he wants to love and care for her. . .until death do they part?
The Good
~At first suprisingly religious- I just enjoyed that Devan was a clergyman because that is not shown (in my reading experience) that much in historical romance
~deals with tough topics that usually get airbrushed or told in a certain way in historical romance
-brothels usually are mentioned and shown for five seconds but story moves on because lead guy falls for girl who amazing pureness changes the hero
-horrible men- because they existed
-trauma- the effect the horribleness of that society had on women in the long term
-complicatedness (no spoilers) but because of certain relationships that are messy we are able to get interesting not shown that much story lines
The Bad
~All the tropey stuff played out in the ways I do not enjoy was very present
-sex = love aka using sex/lust in place of actually building the romance
-things felt scripted like of course he looks at her in that way, she talks about him in that way, they meet up and xyz happens
~Point when I felt I was dragging myself through this book because nothing was happening for the most part
~Tied up quickly interesting threads that would have spiced up the story
The Meh
-still does not focus on any women of ill reputation or it was not spicy/messy enough for me. I think all these characters who defy the society would have been interesting characters to follow but we ended up following the usual romance leads with a little spice.
Thoughts
I am happy to be back into romance but I feel this disappointment with the genre of late. I feel like characters are already in love so we can miss the romantic tension of them realizing their feelings over time.
We going to talk about how these stories are not challenging beauty standards? Neither are they challenging the wealthy status quo.
We need to challenge these weird if you don’t get married you will die alone/are incomplete messages.
On positive side I am seeing more historical romance deal with dark issues that would be prevalent during the 19th/18th century- just think about David Copperfield, Oliver Twist, and the like that showed that time period was the gutter.
*I won this on goodreads and was sent it for review from the publisher, St. Martins press*
(the cover and synopsis is from goodreads)
themollyweather 