GENRE: Historical Romance
SETTING: England, 1812
SERIES: House of Trent, book 2
AUTHOR SITE: link
MY GRADE: B
From Publisher: Lord Lukas Hawkins, the rakish second son of the House of Trent, has never found a wager he couldn't win or a woman he couldn't seduce—until his search for his missing mother leads him to a mysterious encounter with a beautiful stranger.
Luke's mother has been missing for months, and while his honorable older brother Simon, Duke of Trent, leads the official investigation from London, Luke sets out on a somewhat seedier path. Sources have told him his mother was last seen with a scoundrel named Roger Morton, but their association isn't clear. Was she kidnapped or did she go willingly?
While searching for Morton, Luke meets Emma Anderson, a secretive beauty with her own reasons for hunting Morton. At first Luke laughs at the idea of allowing a woman to join him in his search, but soon Emma's insights into Morton—like the woman herself—prove impossible to resist.
MY THOUGHTS: This book is second in the series and features Simon's (from book one) younger brother, Luke. He's twenty-seven and has dark blonde hair and blue eyes. He seems to be an alcoholic who's haunted by his abusive childhood. He's the only one of his siblings who was abused at the hands of their father. He's pretty dark. He's got low self esteem too. His relationship with Simon is strained and Luke feels inferior to him. He doesn't even like for Simon to be mentioned. He's got some mental health issues due to him thinking his dead father is out to kill him. I like that their relationship is strained and found that interesting. Most siblings of the same gender get along great in romance novels so I liked that they don't have too good of one.
The widowed Emma Curtis, nee Anderson's on a mission to find the elusive Roger Morton, who isn't as he seems, and make him pay for his dirty deeds. When Emma and Luke team up to find Roger and Luke's mother, their chemistry is instant. The sex is pretty explicit, the terminology a bit more explicit than usual, which I really like, and there's plenty of it.
We learn more about Luke's missing mother and how it came to be that she was with Roger but we don't learn where she is yet. We'll have to wait until book three (May 2014) to find out, I presume, and I can't wait.
There's something the author did that really annoyed me, and I've noticed this in a few other newer historicals as well. She'd put periods between all the words in a short sentence because she'd want to put emphasis on each of them. I'm not a fan of that type of modern day speaking/typing (I see people talk/type like this on the internet) and don't appreciate it being in historicals. Here's some examples: He.Is.Not.Evil./So.Damn.Beautiful./Bloody.Hell./You.Were.Innocent.
The story is kind of slow moving until near the end. I enjoyed it overall and I like Luke a lot, especially his back story. Emma's your average likable heroine but there's nothing special about her. She's pretty cookie cutter.
I received this from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
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