And we're off!!
http://www.kellybowen.net/
You know I lose track of things. And, somewhere along the way I lost track of Kelly Bowen,
until I found her again. In my TBR pile I had her debut novel I've Got the Duke to Keep Me Warm. It was just sitting there. Having just finished Ms. Bowen's more recent books I decided to go back and glom her first series, The Lords of Worth. As I started to read this book, it began sounding familiar and then it dawned on me. I had attempted to read it before and for some reason couldn't finish it and I sat it aside. Light bulb going off!!! That means that I've Got the Duke to Keep Me Warm is a DNF and I can use it to not only glom an author but to start my DNF project. Yes, I am going to reread some of my DNFs - we will see how long I can keep that up. Anyway, I was a happy camper, glomming and DNFing all in one book.Well, I started. Then I stopped. Then I started. Then I stopped. I'm not sure what the deal was with the first three chapters of the book, but they gave me some trouble. Maybe it was the heroine in disguise theme, which I will admit is not one of my favorite plotline devices - but then that's me, so I must rise above it. Maybe it was the name Gisele. You know authors have no idea what might be triggered in a reader’s psychic when they chose a name. Gisele, I must rise above it. I pressed forward. And, do you know what happened? All of a sudden I realized I had been captured by the prose.
Gisele Whitby is hiding out from her abusive, psychopath husband. How is she hiding out? Well, she very spectacularly fabricated her death, and adopted a new identity. She is now helping other women who were much like she was, trapped in a marriage with a man who beats them. She and her group of cohort’s help these women disappear into the landscape. But she is having a dilemma when this story begins; she needs another helper because her last one fell in love and is on his honeymoon. Gisele is desperate. It seems that her husband has found another woman to marry. She cannot let history repeat itself. Gisele needs to break up those marriage plans and she is on the lookout for a man who can help her. Enter James Montcrief.
James is a great hero. He is also down in the dumps. While his father, the duke did actually marry James' mother, he was a tad bit late and didn't marry her until after James was born. That makes James a bastard. It also makes James' brother, the second son the Duke, the heir. But that isn't why James is blue, no he's accepted that - sort of. He's down in the dumps because of the things he saw on the battlefield, including the death of another one of his brothers at Waterloo. Now he is drowning his sorrow in alcohol and doing odd jobs just to pay for it. This was not a story about his drinking problem; in fact that sort of disappeared once James joined Gisele in her endeavor. We do get to see him come to grips with his brother's death and all the demons floating around in his head.
Gisele has a number of plans to break up the upcoming nuptials of her husband and his fiancée. I do acknowledge when I was reading these plans my eyes kept rolling. The funny part was, Jamie and Gisele were doing the same thing - discarding ideas because they were just outrageously bad. Now, if you think this story sounds like a boo-hoo downer, it's not. One of the patterns I found while reading so many of Ms. Bowen's books in a roll is that she balances them with just the right amount of humor and just the right amount of drama. We are never overwhelmed with either one. The characters of Jamie and Gisele played off of each other marvelously.
Secondary characters. There were a number of well-written supporting cast introduced in this story. Sebastian, Eleanor, Duchess of Worth, Eleanor's companion and Eleanor's son, and a few others. All of these characters managed to pique my interest and at the same time they didn’t take over the book. I believe most of them will have their own stories. Eleanor, Duchess of Worth was actually quite funny, as was her son's reaction to her antics.
Villain. This book has an absolutely menacing villain in the character of Adam Levire, the Marquess of Valence. His abusive actions in this tale are written realistically. There is a wonderful tension which permeates the narrative after Gisele and Jamie put their plan into action. Quibble. I would have liked for Gisele to have escaped out of the story without being snatched by her husband again. However, this is not a perfect world and I knew beforehand that probably the author wasn't going to let that happen. I guess the hero had to ride to the rescue one last time. But that was just a minor quibble.
Overall, I liked this book even though I had a hard time starting it. In the end it was full of wonderful moments, great dialogue, and chock full of fascinating characters. It would have received a higher rating from me if I hadn't stumbled at the beginning and the kidnapping at the end hadn't troubled me. I didn't think it was necessary to add that piece of drama. I do recommend this book! I'm having a lot of fun with my short glom.
Time/Place: Regency England
Sensuality: Hot!
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