I've been feeling a little disillusioned with this genre lately. I guess the hazard of devouring such a ridiculous number of historical romances is that they all start to feel annoyingly similar :) I've actually taken a bit of a break from romance this summer, starting very few of them and bothering to finish even fewer.
I made an exception for this book because I absolutely love Katharine Ashe's writing style even if I don't always love WHAT she writes (more about that later!) and, well, because the price was so delightfully low compared to most other new releases :) I ended up reading this entire book in a few hours----not because it isn't long enough, but because I loved it too much to put it down. As some of you fellow bookworms know, things like sleeping and eating become markedly less important when you're totally immersed in a beloved book!
The first thing prospective readers should know is that this book contains a really well-developed whodunit. I know that some romance readers don't like mystery mixed in with their romance, so consider yourselves warned! I'm a lifelong mystery lover, however, and I actually tend to get restless when romances are about nothing other than the primary couple's internal angst for 300+ pages, so the fact that I Adored A Lord contained such a compelling mystery was a huge plus for me. And you know how most of the murder mysteries you find in romances are mediocre at best and downright cringe inducing at worst? Well, I'm happy to report that this one was genuinely well done!
Katahrine Ashe's writing is sublime. Seriously, anyone who contends that the romance genre is totally devoid of intelligence and literary merit should be directed to read Katahrine Ashe's work. Her writing is clever, insightful, witty without being goofy and surprisingly thought provoking.
I liked the heroine a lot. She's a slightly odd animal lover who's both sensitive and spirited, admirable yet flawed. But it's the hero who stole my heart in this one. He's a restless soul who's desperate for adventure and fearful of remaining in one place for too long, which makes him both amusing and interesting. I've grown to dislike the typical 'hyper-controlling, angry alphas' and 'drunken frat boy rogues' that populate far too many romance novels these days, and I'm happy to report that, while Vitor does have a few of those qualities, he's also one of those increasingly rare heroes who I found genuinely root-worthy and likable: honorable, spirited and genuinely kind.
I'm not a big fan of explicit sex scenes as a general rule, but for those who are, rest assured that this book is moderately 'steamy' and passionate without being one of those books that contains hundreds of pages of repetitive, can't-tell-one-from-the-other bedroom scenes between the H and h.
If the worst criticism I can hurl at a book is that I disliked the names of its main characters (Ravenna and Vitor...really?!), then you know I found it an immensely satisfying reading experience :) I didn't love the first book in this series, but this one was far more lively and sucks-you-in engaging for me. I recommend it very highly!
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