The return of the King’s Elite aka Elmer Fudd squad – sort of.
https://www.virginiaheathromance.com/
Warning: This is not a standalone book
Yes, it’s the final installment of Virginia Heath’s King’s Elite series, but this time it’s
different. This time the hero had a brain. Actually, he was not really a member of the spy team, but the barrister who prosecutes the villain’s the heroes from the previous books had arrested. That may explain his being smart; he was not one of the spies. There were not any over the top dramatics, or blood-curdling chase scenes in this story. It had a very different voice from the rest of the books in the series. The Determined Lord Hadleigh was a full-throttle, character-driven book, with two very strong leads. In the one corner, we had Tristan, Lord Hadleigh. I will be honest, when I read his character in the previous books in the series, especially in The Uncompromising Lord Flint, I didn’t like him. I thought he was something of a hard-nosed tyrant. I guess you have to be, to be a prosecutor, but he was an aggressive, nasty person. In The Determined Lord Hadleigh, we actually see that he had a human side. Hadleigh does care very much about the victims of the crimes he prosecutes, especially Lady Clarissa Penhurst.
If you have read any of these books at all, you may remember Lady Penhurst from The Mysterious Lord Millcroft. She was the abused wife of one of the villains in this series, Viscount Penhurst. This book, The Determined Lord Hadleigh began with Viscount Penhurst on trial, and his wife testifying against him. Tristan was impressed with the honesty and courage she exhibited on the stand. However, after her husband’s guilty verdict, the Crown stripped the Viscount of his title, wealth and estates. This left Lady Penhurst without any means to keep herself and her son alive. Tristan felt guilty. For reasons he couldn’t comprehend, he had a need to do something to help her. But how would he be able to do that? Well, that was a conundrum, especially when Lady Penhurst changed her name, went into hiding, and refused any help from allllllll of her friends. And, Hadleigh was not a friend, so his chances of helping Penny were zero. What’s a guy to do? Well, in this case what he consistently did was the wrong thing. Penny Penhurst, aka Mrs. Henley turned out to be a real hard person to please.
The, I-want-to-do-it-on-my-own routine. Sigh. Penny Penhurst wanted to do everything on her own. She’s tired of being told what to do. She’s tired of depending on others. She wanted to be her own person. She’s bound and determined to make a living, and not have to answer to anyone. She will never, ever, allow any man to control her again! She will work and slave in her little shop until she has enough money to purchase that little cottage. There she will live peacefully, away from prying eyes and hurtful gossip. Imagine her surprise when she attempted to pay her bills and finds that they were already paid. All of them. She jumped to the conclusion that her friend Clarissa paid them – wrong. After some pretty mean, friend talk/accusations from Penny, Clarissa convinced Penny that she didn’t have anything to do with paying her bills. Penny did ask Clarissa to look into the matter for her. Remember, Clarissa’s husband was one of the spies. Then Penny found out who paid them? Penny exploded! Hadleigh had paid alllll of her bills – without her permission! She confronted him, and raked him over the coals. It was at this point in the story I said, “Wait a minute little lady.” Personally, I’m allll about women’s voices being heard. I believe women should have rights, do what they want, and not be crushed under the thumb of some abusive blockhead. However, she had a child, a child who was not yet two years old. She was a mother, and that should have been her first priority – the well-being of that child. She should have accepted the help from her friends. And, what about that confrontation with poor, don’t-know-women Hadleigh? In my opinion, she should not have turned into the hell-hound from Planet Virago. Her reprimand of Hadleigh was downright spiteful. A gracious thank-you would have been nice, followed by the don’t do it again speech. There are times to be assertive, there are times to be outspoken, but the welfare of one’s child should come first. You can find yourself after the essentials, (like eating) are taken care of. At this point in my reading, I did not care for Penny.
Hadleigh left with his tail between his legs, but he had a plan. Yes, he had a convoluted Romanceland plan. Remember Jessamine from The Uncompromising Lord Flint? In this story she was about to testify against the bad people, and her husband wanted her protected. Hadleigh suggested that the Flints hide out at his country estate until the trial. He hardly ever visited his estate, and it did need to be put in order. Who better to clean and organize then Mrs. Henley, aka Penny Penhurst? The government could even pay her a small stipend. After a lot of arm-twisting, and pleading on Hadleigh’s part, Penny agreed. Unbeknownst to Penny, Hadleigh was donating a little extra funds to the pot. Oh, Hadleigh, would you never learn? You know she won’t be happy when she finds out you were contributing money - again. She’s mean Hadleigh, mean!
Anyway, they all went to his country estate, and Penny cleaned. Pretty soon Hadleigh appeared. But there’s something wrong! The second angst-filled problem. You know I can only handle one angst-filled person per book. There’s a reason Hadleigh doesn’t ever visit his lovely country estate; his mother was killed there. Yes, he had a bad childhood. He had an abusive father. His mother tried to hide the abuse from him, but he knew and he had this enormous guilt living within him. Then one day while Hadleigh was away at school, his father pushed his mother down the stairs. Well, he might not have been able to be there for his mother, but he was determined to be there for Penny, whether she wanted his help or not. You see the hamster in the wheel, don’t you? She wouldn’t accept his help, and he wouldn’t stop giving it. Around and around they went.
Eventually Penny and Hadleigh became friends, real friends. This was a slow burn romance. It took Penny a long time and lot’s of mental anguish to trust Hadleigh. The compromises between Hadleigh and Penny seemed a little lop-sided to me. I thought that Hadleigh did most of the compromising in the book, and for this romance to work they should have been equal partners. Penny should have realized that Hadleigh was nothing like her first husband. She could still be a strong person, and have the support of a man who loved her.
Grammar issue – again. While I have talked, at length about the issues I’ve had with Ms. Heath grammar, I feel I must bring it up again. I can overlook cultural grammar differences, but there were some editing problems in this story, for instance: “She’d happily share his bed and his body, but she did trust him enough to give up her freedom.” What does that sentence mean? In the context of what was going on at the time, it didn’t make sense. I’m going to jump out on a limb here. I believe there was probably a question being asked. I think there are two words which were switched: “she” and “did.” Or, maybe the word “not” was left out. I think the sentence should probably read: “She’d happily share his bed and his body, but did she trust him enough to give up her freedom?” Doesn’t that make more sense? I know it’s hard to edit, I know about wrong words, wrong tenses, wrong spellings, and words that appear to be there but aren’t. But, there seemed to be an editing problem in this book, because I was thrown out of the story more than once.
What did I think of this story? Well, it’s really hard for me to say, there were so many hot button issues that made me stumble over some of the characters. I was not all that fond of the heroine. In my opinion she failed in her attempt to be a strong, independent woman because she failed in her first responsibility – taking care of her child. Accepting help from friends would have gone a long way toward Penny turning into the powerful woman she longed to be. I was disturbed that Hadleigh and Penny were not equal partners. Maybe others might not be disturbed by choices the lead characters made, but I was. I also believe the author ended up solving a number of issues in a 21st century manner, and that can be a issue when writing historical books. There were parts of this story which were just fine, but the stubbornness of the heroine ruined it for me. I liked the hero, but was disappointed in the heroine. Bottom-line, this story did not live up to my expectations.
Time/Place: Regency England
Sensuality: Warm
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