Madeline Hunter 'The Sins of Lord Easterbrook'
Lord Easterbrook is the mysteriously retiring and eccentric older brother of the Easterbrook clan. When he sees Leona in London he is stunned, as he has never forgotten their time together in Macao, seven years ago, where her father had a trading company.
In previous books he is the quintessential powerfully inscrutable character. A wealthy and socially influential marquis who is almost completely dismissive of English society's expectations. He does not go into society except when he feels it's necessary to support his family members, which given his emotional reserve from them, is an insight into a soft heartedness that his brothers are quite surprised by.
In this book we learn Christian suffers from a prescient ability to discern people's emotions, and for some reason he can not read Leona. When he finds she is in London he is determined to have her. What is so interesting about this character is that his pursuit of her combines both sexual temptation AND support of her other interests. In other words, he courts her by being her friend and support, not just trying to fufill her sexually.
This is what I love about Hunter, when she's at her best, her characters and relationships have an extra realism to them that makes them less forgettable than other romance couples, without bursting my 'romance bubble' if you will. It goes without saying that her historical detail and feel for period enhances the books as well.
Historical Romance 2009: 5 out of 5 loose dressing gowns.
3 comments:
Why is being unable to read a woman so appealing? That's the same allure that Bella has for Edward in "Twilight." I guess it creates an air of mystery, especially if everyone else is so transparent, but it seems like it'd be quite the letdown if that mysteriousness turned out to be just some fundamental shallowness. If I wrote romance novels, they'd be quite the downer, wouldn't they!
I have just recently bought this. I really enjoyed most of the other books in this series, so have high hopes for this one.
Anne, yes, well, the likelihood of one of the characters of a romance novel finally being revealed as a shallow uninteresting person is pretty low.
The mind reading premise in Dead Until Dark, and Sins of Lord E is described similarly, knowing exactly what someone is feeling/thinking while you are with them is often a disadvantage when dating, especially during sex when thoughts of "Geese her butt's a bit big." can be very disconcerting. Lord E seems to be just exhausted from all the inputs, both characters talk about having to gain some control over the intrusion of everyone's thoughts. :)
Marg, I thought this one was one of the better one's in this series. Enjoy. :)
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