August 24, 2020
Watch out for the red herrings!
https://www.elisabraden.com/
Confessions of a Dangerous Lord is a spy, thriller story – sort of. It’s supposed to be a romance, but the intrigue takes over the story. Remember Henry, the fop, from previous books? He is every ones favorite jovial friend, always witty, always up for a good laugh. He dresses in foppish clothes and likes to hunt. But, there is more to Henry, Earl of Dunston, than our little eyes can see. He is out to catch the villain who murdered his father. Also, along for the ride is our heroine Maureen Huxley, yes part of that Huxley family who have shown up in a few of the earlier books. Well, it seems that Maureen and Henry fell in love with each other years ago at her sister’s wedding. Ever since then Maureen has been trying to get Henry to confess his love for her, and propose marriage. And, Henry – well Henry has been running away. He wants nothing to do with her. He has a reason, or at least he has a hero-reason. A hero-reason is similar to a hero-plan in that it doesn’t necessarily make sense, and it could change at any time.
Maureen’s life-long dream is to be married and have babies. She longs for Henry, but she’s feeling blue because he keeps rejecting her. She decides, ok enough is enough, I’ll find someone else. And she tries. She is popular with the other men in her world; she has a number of suitors. Most of them meet her requirements, which in this case is to have a Timothy Toad. Anyway, something odd keeps happening; her suitors just keep changing their mind. She just is not able to understand it. She checks her underarms for any smells. Unbeknownst to her, Henry has been scaring her suitors away. He cannot have her, and he makes sure that no one else will have her either. It does not sound very sporting to me. I believe this puts him in the running for bonehead hero.
Eventually, Maureen lands a suitor who is not intimidated by Henry: Phineas Brand, Lord Holstoke. Holstoke happens to be a secondary character who steals scenes. He’s a handsome, self-composed, cool customer. That’s a good thing, because he gets his own book. He’s also a nice guy, and very likeable. He is actually more likeable than Henry, the bonehead Maureen is mooning over.
The presence of Holstoke panics Henry, and Henry marries Maureen. The end. Not really. You see there is a problem, the reason Henry maintained a distance from Maureen. The villain of the book.
The villain of the piece is well written, and pretty much hidden. When the villain made their first appearance on the pages, my little gray cells started to stir. But then the author threw some wonderful red-herrings into the batch, and I was distracted away from the true villain. For the most part, I thought the villain was pretty creepy, the only small problem I had was the “this-is-why-I-did-it” explanation when the villain is caught. There must be a better way to find out why villains do what they do than to do a three-page dissertation. Regardless, the villain was delightfully evil.
So, what does the villain have to do with Henry being a bonehead. Well the villain is murdering people who are close to Henry. Henry thinks if he ignores the woman he loves, the villain will leave her alone. Then he panics and marries her, so all those years of ignoring her are totally wasted.
As in the other books in this series, there was an overload of sex scenes. For the most part, they serve no purpose, and they happen at odd points in the narrative. The mystery overwhelmed the romance in this story, and that’s too bad because Henry and Maureen could have been a great couple. They were just hidden behind the suspense, the villain and Lord Holstoke. I sort of recommend this book, it’s not going to be something you will remember as one of the bestest romance stories ever written, but it’s a good way to while away a pandemic day.
Maureen’s life-long dream is to be married and have babies. She longs for Henry, but she’s feeling blue because he keeps rejecting her. She decides, ok enough is enough, I’ll find someone else. And she tries. She is popular with the other men in her world; she has a number of suitors. Most of them meet her requirements, which in this case is to have a Timothy Toad. Anyway, something odd keeps happening; her suitors just keep changing their mind. She just is not able to understand it. She checks her underarms for any smells. Unbeknownst to her, Henry has been scaring her suitors away. He cannot have her, and he makes sure that no one else will have her either. It does not sound very sporting to me. I believe this puts him in the running for bonehead hero.
Eventually, Maureen lands a suitor who is not intimidated by Henry: Phineas Brand, Lord Holstoke. Holstoke happens to be a secondary character who steals scenes. He’s a handsome, self-composed, cool customer. That’s a good thing, because he gets his own book. He’s also a nice guy, and very likeable. He is actually more likeable than Henry, the bonehead Maureen is mooning over.
The presence of Holstoke panics Henry, and Henry marries Maureen. The end. Not really. You see there is a problem, the reason Henry maintained a distance from Maureen. The villain of the book.
The villain of the piece is well written, and pretty much hidden. When the villain made their first appearance on the pages, my little gray cells started to stir. But then the author threw some wonderful red-herrings into the batch, and I was distracted away from the true villain. For the most part, I thought the villain was pretty creepy, the only small problem I had was the “this-is-why-I-did-it” explanation when the villain is caught. There must be a better way to find out why villains do what they do than to do a three-page dissertation. Regardless, the villain was delightfully evil.
So, what does the villain have to do with Henry being a bonehead. Well the villain is murdering people who are close to Henry. Henry thinks if he ignores the woman he loves, the villain will leave her alone. Then he panics and marries her, so all those years of ignoring her are totally wasted.
As in the other books in this series, there was an overload of sex scenes. For the most part, they serve no purpose, and they happen at odd points in the narrative. The mystery overwhelmed the romance in this story, and that’s too bad because Henry and Maureen could have been a great couple. They were just hidden behind the suspense, the villain and Lord Holstoke. I sort of recommend this book, it’s not going to be something you will remember as one of the bestest romance stories ever written, but it’s a good way to while away a pandemic day.
Time/Place: Regency England
Sensuality: Same as others
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