Book source ~ NetGalley
5 August 2014
Historical | Romance
384 Pages
My Rating ~ 5 bites
Baron Sebastian St.
Clair was stuck between a rock and a hard place. As a boy he and his family
visited family in France and then got stranded there when Napoleon went apeshit
and the war started. His father slipped back to England but died during the
war. Then his mother died. In order to protect his French relations, Sebastian
had to join the French army as Robert Girard, in charge of a chateau where they
tortured prisoners to get information out of them. English prisoners. Of which
Sebastian could claim half his ancestry. When the war was over, England
pardoned the torturer St. Clair, and, as the last remaining male heir, he was
told to take up the barony and get to work. He was trying to live a quiet life
and do just that, but The Traitor Baron kept being challenged to duels by the
very peers he tortured during the war. Would there be no peace for him? Enter Miss
Millicent Danforth, a poor relation turned paid companion. His only remaining
relative, his elderly Aunt Freddie, had gone through quite a string of paid
companions before she hires Milly. And the story is off and running…
After having read book
1, The Captive, I have to say I came
into this story with grave doubts that the author could turn the torturer from
it into a hero. I was wrong. Sebastian is a complicated tortured soul himself.
What he has done haunts him. Not just because he had to torture his peers, but
the circumstances that brought him to it. He’s flawed, but redeemable. Milly
isn’t without her demons. She’s a great character and perfect for Sebastian.
The story is complicated and layered and one of the best reads of 2019 for me.
Hell, it ranks up there with my all-time favorites. Bravo!
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