I went through a phase where romance novels were just irritating me and so I got out of the habit of reading them. Now that I'm reading more of them again, I still find a number of them irritating, but sometimes I happen upon one that I truly enjoy.

This was one of the truly enjoyable ones.

Courtney Milan has built a beautiful series of stories here. I'm loving the Turner brothers and having such a great time reading about their romances. The characters never do the expected thing, whic...

I went through a phase where romance novels were just irritating me and so I got out of the habit of reading them. Now that I'm reading more of them again, I still find a number of them irritating, but sometimes I happen upon one that I truly enjoy.

This was one of the truly enjoyable ones.

Courtney Milan has built a beautiful series of stories here. I'm loving the Turner brothers and having such a great time reading about their romances. The characters never do the expected thing, which gives the usual tropes of historical romance a fresh twist.

I loved the glimpses we got of Mark in the first novel in this trilogy, Unveiled, and I was eager to learn more about him in this book. He did not disappoint. I like the notion of a man willing to admit that his society holds women to a sexual double standard, but that's not a new concept. I've read romances that feature a hero who believes the chaste expectations for women are unfair. But most of those men seem to think women should become as sexually liberated as the men. Mark does the opposite. He likes the idea of chastity in women; he happens to think men should be chaste too.

At the same time, I worried that this would lead to a far too innocent hero or a cold, uninterested one, but Mark certainly isn't that. He knows women. He likes women. He likes to flirt and tease and though he doesn't have any experience with sex, he's not exactly unaware of how things are supposed to go. He's very aware of sex and sexuality and he's not a blushing innocent who thinks only pure and saintly thoughts.

I got a huge kick out of the way Ms. Milan played with that expectation too, with society folks constantly trying to set him up with innocent way-too-young girls because that's what they all assume he wants.

Naturally, he's more attracted to Jessica. She's bold and confident. She's not afraid to tell him what she thinks. She's attractive and she knows it and she's more than willing to flaunt it. Most importantly, she's a GROWN UP. She's got life experience and she can talk to him intelligently. I love the way they argue.

The role reversal in this story was nice. She's the one who thinks she's not good enough for him; he's the one trying to convince her that he's not a saint and she shouldn't be putting him up on a pedestal, particularly not one she can't possibly ever hope to reach. He's the innocent who believes in true love and is struggling against passion he didn't expect; she's the one who expected lust and was shocked to find love instead.

Not only did our hero and heroine find themselves in the opposite roles than traditionally expected, Ms. Milan did a good job translating those roles across the sexual lines. I've read novels where authors tried to reverse sexual expectations and ended up with a book that read like a traditional romance with the pronouns swapped around. That's beyond unbelievable and makes for a terrible read, in my opinion.

But Mark didn't end up playing the heroine role in men's clothing. He was in the traditional female situation, but his experience and expectations were decidedly male. It was the same for Jessica. She was put in a situation more commonly assigned to the hero of a romance novel, calculatingly setting out to seduce and ruin the virgin, but she is still a very strong feminine character.

I loved this book and I can't wait for the next one!

The author posits an explanation for the madness of Mark's mother in her multimedia notes that colored my enjoyment of this book throughout and caused me to read with a jaundiced eye. Ultimately, it was never mentioned in the text and I trust that it was just a wild hair.

We first encountered Sir Mark Turner in Unveiled. I enjoyed his character and was quite curious about what sort of woman would be his ideal mate. He mentioned his want of a lioness. Well, he got her. Jessica is a quite a ...

The author posits an explanation for the madness of Mark's mother in her multimedia notes that colored my enjoyment of this book throughout and caused me to read with a jaundiced eye. Ultimately, it was never mentioned in the text and I trust that it was just a wild hair.

We first encountered Sir Mark Turner in Unveiled. I enjoyed his character and was quite curious about what sort of woman would be his ideal mate. He mentioned his want of a lioness. Well, he got her. Jessica is a quite a woman.

I admired Mark's dedication to chastity. His motives were pure and rooted in the protection of women. Unfortunately, his motives were misunderstood and subverted by others who chose to wound women with their chastity. This scenario reminded me so strongly of the teachings of Jesus and how they have been so subverted by the sanctimonious denizens of Christendom. Mark's reaction to this subversion is so telling.

Jessica was a woman on a mission to secure her independence. She was determined to succeed in her plan, but she did not factor in Mark's on strength of purpose. Ultimately, she was the one who was thoroughly owned and seduced.

We get another slice of the picture of the mystery of the Turner family matriarch. Also another glimpse of Smite Turner, the brother whose story I really craved. Why is he the way that he is? Continue reading? I must.

So we have a perpetually virgin hero and a fallen woman as our hero and heroine. That's quite the switch. Our Jessica has been hurt badly by the men in her life. The last thing she wants is the touch of a man or the taste of tea. That conundrum puzzled me throughout the book. Our Mark knew that he would know her when he saw her and he did.

A satisfying read by a wonderful author. The more I read Milan's work, the higher she climbs on my favored authors list. Her writing and research are top notch.