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Unveiled (A Turner Series Book 1) Kindle Edition with Audio/Video
He gets Lady Margaret.
Margaret lost everything when Ash claimed the dukedom: her dowry, her legitimacy, and her place in society. Now Ash wants to take her family home, too. She disguises herself as a nurse, determined to learn his weaknesses. But the closer she comes to Ash, the greater the pull of his reckless charm. If she wants to reclaim what she has lost, her only choice is to betray the man she is beginning to love...
This is an enhanced ebook. In addition to the text of the book itself, it contains pictures and audio. You can read this enhanced ebook on any device, but the audio content may not be accessible on all ereaders. That content has been made available on the web, so you won't miss anything if your device doesn't support audio.
Unveiled is the first book in the Turner series. The full series is:
- Unveiled
- Unlocked, a companion novella
- Unclaimed
- Unraveled
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherEntangled: Edge
- Publication dateJuly 7, 2014
- File size2477 KB
- Due to large size of this book, please connect your device to WiFi to download.
- Audio/Video content is available on Fire tablets (except Kindle Fire 1st Generation) and iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch devices.
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Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
About the Author
Courtney Milan lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband, an exuberant dog, and an attack cat. Before she started writing historical romance, Courtney experimented with various occupations, none of which stuck. Now, when she's not reading (lots), writing (lots), or sleeping (not enough), she can be found in the vicinity of a classroom.
You can learn more about Courtney at http://www.courtneymilan.com.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Somerset, August 1837
So this was how it felt to be a conquering hero.
Ash Turneronce plain Mr. Turner; now, so long as fate stayed Parliament's hand, the future Duke of Parfordsat back on his horse as he reached the crest of the hill.
The estate he would inherit was laid out in the valley before him. Stone walls and green hedges hugged the curves of the limestone hill where his horse stood, breaking the brilliant apple-green growth of high summer into gentle, rolling squares of patchwork. A small cottage stood to the side of the road. He could hear the hushed whispers of the farm children, who had crept out to gawk at him as he passed.
Over the past few months, he'd become accustomed to being gawked at.
Behind him, his younger brother's steed stamped and came to a halt. From this high vantage point, they could see Parford Manoran impressive four-story, five-winged affair, its brilliant windows glittering in the sunlight. Undoubtedly, someone had set a servant to watch for his arrival. In a few moments, the staff would spill out onto the front steps, arranging themselves in careful lines, ready to greet the man who would be their master.
The man who'd stolen a dukedom.
A smile played over Ash's face. Once he inherited, nobody would gainsay him.
"You don't have to do this." The words came from behind him.
Nobody, that was, except his little brother.
Ash turned in the saddle. Mark was facing forwards, looking at the manor below with an abstracted expression. That detached focus made him look simultaneously old, as if he deserved an elder's beard to go with that inexplicable wisdom, and yet still unaccountably boyish.
"It's not right." Mark's voice was barely audible above the wind that whipped at Ash's collar.
Mark was seven years younger than Ash, which made him by most estimations firmly an adult. But despite all that Mark had experienced, he had somehow managed to retain an aura of almost painful purity. He was the opposite of Ashblond, where Ash's hair was dark; slim, where Ash's shoulders had broadened with years of labor. But most of all, Mark seemed profoundly, sacredly innocent, where Ash felt tired and profane. Perhaps that was why the last thing Ash wanted to do in his moment of victory was to hash through the ethics.
Ash shook his head. "You asked me to find you a quiet country home for these last weeks of summer, so you might work in peace." He spread his arms, palms up. "Well. Here you are."
Down in the valley, the first ranks of servants had begun to gather, jockeying for position on the wide steps leading up to the massive front doors.
Mark shrugged, as if this evidence of prosperity meant nothing to him. "A house back in Shepton Mallet would have done."
A tight knot formed in Ash's stomach. "You're not going back to Shepton Mallet. You're never going back there. Do you suppose I would simply kick you from a carriage at Market Cross and let you disappear for the summer?"
Mark finally broke his gaze from the tableau in front of them and met Ash's eyes. "Even by your extravagant standards, Ash, you must admit this is a bit much."
"You don't think I would make a good duke? Or you don't approve of the method I used to inveigle a summer's invitation to the ducal manor?"
Mark simply shook his head. "I don't need this. We don't need this."
And therein lay Ash's problem. He wanted to make up for every last bit of his brothers' childhood deprivation. He wanted to repay every skipped meal with twelve-course dinners, gift a thousand pairs of gloves in exchange for every shoeless winter. He'd risked his life building a fortune to ensure their happiness. Yet both his brothers declared themselves satisfied with a few prosaic simplicities.
Simplicities wouldn't make up for Ash's failure. So maybe he had overindulged when Mark finally asked him for a favor.
"Shepton Mallet would have been quiet," Mark said, almost wistfully.
"Shepton Mallet is halfway to dead." Ash clucked to his horse. As he did so, the wind stopped. What he'd intended as a faint sound of encouragement sounded overloud. The horse started down the road towards the manor.
Mark kicked his mare into a trot and followed.
"You've never thought it through," Ash tossed over his shoulder. "With Richard and Edmund Dalrymple no longer able to inherit, you're fourth in line for the dukedom. There are a great many advantages to that. Opportunities will arise."
"Is that how you're describing your actions, this past year? 'No longer able to inherit?'"
Ash ignored this sally. "You're young. You're handsome. I'm sure there are some lovely milkmaids in Somerset who would be delighted to make the acquaintance of a man who stands an arm's length from a dukedom."
Mark stopped his horse a few yards before the gate to the grounds. Ash felt a fillip of annoyance at the delay, but he halted, too.
"Say it," Mark said. "Say what you did to the Dal-rymples. You've spouted one euphemism after another ever since this started. If you can't even bring yourself to speak the words, you should never have done it."
"Christ. You're acting as if I killed them."
But Mark was looking at him, his blue eyes intense. In this mood, with the sun glancing off all that blond hair, Ash wouldn't have been surprised if his brother had pulled a flaming sword from his saddlebag and proclaimed him barred from Eden forever. "Say it," Mark repeated.
And besides, his little brother so rarely asked anything of him. Ash would have given Mark whatever he wanted, so long as he just well, wanted.
"Very well." He met his brother's eyes. "I brought the evidence of the Duke of Parford's first marriage before the ecclesiastical courts, and thus had his second marriage declared void for bigamy. The children resulting from that union were declared illegitimate and unable to inherit. Which left the duke's long-hated fifth cousin, twice removed, as the presumptive heir. That would be me." Ash started his horse again. "I didn't do anything to the Dalrymples. I just told the truth of what their own father had done all those years ago."
And he wasn't about to apologize for it, either.
Mark snorted and started his horse again. "And you didn't have to do that."
But he had. Ash didn't believe in foretellings or spiritual claptrap, but from time to time, he had premonitions, perhaps, although that word smacked of the occult. A better phrase might have been that he possessed a sheer animal instinct. As if the reactive beast buried deep inside him could recognize truths that human intelligence, dulled by years of education, could not.
When he'd found out about Parford, he'd known with a blazing certainty: If I become Parford, I can finally break my brothers free of the prison they've built for themselves.
With that burden weighing down one side of the scale, no moral considerations could balance the other to equipoise. The disinherited Dalrymples meant nothing. Besides, after what Richard and Edmund had done to his brothers? Really. He shed no tears for their loss.
The servants had finished gathering, and as Ash trotted up the drive, they held themselves at stiff attention. They were too well trained to gawk, too polite to let more than a little rigidity infect their manner. Likely, they were too accustomed to their wages to do more than grouse about the upstart heir the courts had forced upon them.
They'd like him soon enough. Everyone always did.
"Who knows?" he said quietly. "Maybe one of these serving girls will catch your eye. You can have any one you'd like."
Mark favored him with an amused look. "Satan," he said, shaking his head, "get thee behind me."
Ash's steed came to a stop and he dismounted slowly. The manor looked smaller than Ash remembered, the stone of its facade honey-gold, not bleak and imposing. It had shrunk from the unassailable fortress that had loomed in Ash's head all these years. Now it was just a house. A big house, yes, but not the dark, menacing edifice he'd brooded over in his memory.
The servants stood in painful, ordered rows. Ash glanced over them.
There were probably more than a hundred retainers arrayed before him, all dressed in gray. He felt as sober as they appeared. Had there been the slightest danger of Mark accepting his cavalier offer, Ash would never have made it. These people were his dependents nowor they would be, once the current duke passed on. His duty. Their prosperity would hang on his whim, as his had once hung on Parford's. It was a weighty responsibility.
I'm going to do better than that old bastard.
A vow, that, and one he meant every bit as much as the last promise he'd sworn, looking up at this building.
He turned to greet the majordomo, who stepped forwards. As he did so, he saw her. She stood on the last row of steps, a few inches apart from the rest of the servants. She held her head high. The wind started up again, as if the entire universe had been holding its breath up until this moment. She was looking directly at him, and Ash felt a cavernous hollow open deep in his chest.
He'd never seen the woman before in his life. He couldn't have; he would have remembered the feel of her, the sheer rightness of it. She was pretty, even with that dark hair pulled into a severe knot and pinioned beneath a white lace cap. But it wasn't her looks that caught his attention. Ash had seen enough beautiful women in his time. Maybe it was her eyes, narrowed and steely, fixed on him as if he were the source of all that was wrong in the world. Maybe it was the set of her chin, so unyielding, so fiercely determined, when every face around hers mirrored uncertainty. Whatever it was, something about her resonated deep within him.
It reminded him of the cacophony of an orchestra as it tuned its instruments: dissonance, suddenly resolving into harmony. It was the rumble, not of thunder, but its low, rolling precursor, trembling on the horizon. It was all of that. It was none of that. It was sheer animal instinct, and it reached up and grabbed him by the throat. Her. Her.
Ash had never ignored his instincts beforenot once. He swallowed hard as the majordomo approached.
"One thing," he whispered to his brother. "The woman in the last rowon the far right? She's mine."
Before his brother could do more than frown at him, before Ash himself could swallow the lingering feeling of sparks coursing through his veins, the majordomo was upon them, bowing and introducing himself. Ash took a deep breath and focused on the man.
"Mr.I mean, my" The man paused, uncertain how to address Ash. With the duke still alive, Ash, a mere distant cousin, held no title. And yet he had come here as heir to the dukedom, on the strictest orders from Chancery. Ash could guess at the careful calculation in the majordomo's eyes: should he risk offending the man who might well be his next master? Or ought he adhere to the strict formalities required by etiquette?
Ash tossed his reins to the groom who crept forwards. "Plain Mr. Turner will do. There's no need to worry about how you address me. I scarcely know what to call myself."
The man nodded and the taut muscles in his face relaxed. "Mr. Turner, shall I arrange a tour, or would you and your brother care to take some refreshment first?"
Ash's eyes wandered to the woman in the back row. She met his gaze, her expression implacable, and a queer shiver ran down his spine. It was not lust itself he felt, but the premonition of desire, as if the wind that whipped around his cravat were whispering in his ears. Her. Choose her.
"Good luck," Mark muttered. "I don't believe she likes you all that much."
That much Ash had gleaned from the set of her jaw.
"No refreshment," Ash said aloud. "No rest. I want to know everything, and the sooner, the better. I'll need to speak with Parford, as well. I'd best start as I mean to go on." He glanced at the woman one last time, and then met his brother's eyes. "After all, I do enjoy a challenge."
From her high perch on the cold stone steps, Anna Margaret Dalrymple could make out little in the features of the two gentlemen who approached on horseback. But what she could see did not bode well for her future.
Ash Turner was both taller and younger than she had expected. Margaret had imagined him arriving in a jewel-encrusted carriage, pulled by a team of eight horsessomething both ridiculously feminine and outrageously ostentatious, to match his reputation as a wealthy nabob. The man who had taken everything from her should have been some hunched creature, prematurely bald, capable of no expression except an insolent sneer.
But this man sat his horse with all the ease and grace of an accomplished rider, and she could not make out a single massive, unsightly gem anywhere on his person.
Drat.
As Mr. Turner cantered up, the servantsit was difficult to think of them as fellow servants, when she was used to thinking of them as herstensed, breath held. And no wonder. This man had supplanted her brother, the rightful heir, through ruthless legal machinations. If Richard failed in his bid to have the Duke of Parford's children legitimized by act of Parliament, Mr. Turner would be the new master. And when her father died, Margaret would find herself a homeless bastard.
He dismounted from his steed with ease and tossed the reins to the stable boy who dashed out to greet him. While he exchanged a few words with the majordomo, she could sense the unease about her, multiplying itself through the shuffling of feet and the uncertain rubbing of hands against sides. What sort of a man was he?
His gaze swept over them, harsh and severe. For one brief second, his eyes came to rest on Margaret. It was an illusion, of coursea wealthy merchant, come to investigate his patrimony, would care nothing for a servant clad in a shapeless gray frock, her hair secured under a severe mobcap. But it seemed as if he were looking directly inside her, as if he could see every day of these past painful months. It was as if he could see the empty echo of the lady she had been. Her heart thumped once, heavily.
She'd counted on being invisible to him in this guise.
Then, as if she'd been but a brief snag in the fluid silk of his life, he looked away, finishing his survey of the massed knot of servants. Beside her, the upstairs maids held their breath. Margaret wished he would just get it over with and say something dastardly, so they could all hate him.
Product details
- ASIN : B00KUYCF2W
- Publisher : Entangled: Edge (July 7, 2014)
- Publication date : July 7, 2014
- Language : English
- File size : 2477 KB
- Text-to-Speech : Enabled
- Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
- X-Ray : Not Enabled
- Word Wise : Enabled
- Print length : 352 pages
- Best Sellers Rank: #487,923 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #2,554 in Historical Regency Fiction
- #5,555 in Victorian Historical Romance (Kindle Store)
- #9,509 in Regency Historical Romance
- Customer Reviews:
About the author
Courtney Milan writes books about carriages, corsets, and smartwatches. Her books have received starred reviews in Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, and Booklist. She is a New York Times and a USA Today Bestseller.
Before she started writing romance, Courtney got a graduate degree in theoretical physical chemistry from UC Berkeley. After that, just to shake things up, she went to law school at the University of Michigan and graduated summa cum laude. Then she did a handful of clerkships. She was a law professor for a while. She now writes full-time.
Courtney pens a weekly newsletter about tea, books, and basically anything and everything else.
Customer reviews
Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.
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Learn more how customers reviews work on AmazonCustomers say
Customers enjoyed the book's romance and premise. They found it delightful, exciting, and compelling. The characters were described as strong, lovable, and multidimensional. The writing quality was described as eloquent, literary, and wonderful. Readers felt the emotional content was heartfelt and caring. The book was described as charming, beautiful, and sensual.
AI-generated from the text of customer reviews
Customers enjoy the romance in the book. They find the story engaging with unique characters and an intricate plot. The premise is intriguing, and the book is described as a wonderful addition to historical romance collections. Readers appreciate the clever twists and humor, as well as the emotional depth.
"...else seemed real enough, and I thought the intricacy of the plot was absolutely brilliant..." Read more
"...Plus, it's both romantic and sexy. Perfect beach read. This author writes well and tells a good story, with believable characters...." Read more
"...the smartest, beautifully-plotted, emotionally-rich, gorgeously-written historical romance I've ever read...." Read more
"...He was very progressive, modern, protective, and so loving ! Not just to the h. His protective nature towards his little brothers is very touching...." Read more
Customers find the book enjoyable and engaging. They say it's a great read from start to finish that keeps them entertained until the end.
"...Plus, it's both romantic and sexy. Perfect beach read. This author writes well and tells a good story, with believable characters...." Read more
"This story is clever, realistic, and over all enjoyed it. I liked the characters, etc...." Read more
"...Anyway, this book was a great read...." Read more
"...begin by saying that this is the first romance novel I've ever found inspiring. I seriously think it raised my own self esteem a few points...." Read more
Customers find the characters compelling and lovable. They appreciate the strong female characters and men who complement them well. The characters become very real to them, with layers upon layers of rich detail. Readers enjoy reading the hero's thoughts and emotions. The author conveys well the despicable traits of the secondary characters.
"...As an aspiring author myself, I was humbled by this author's unbelievable talent (and no, I do not know her), and I am already mulling over what I..." Read more
"...it's the best kind of genre fiction, well-written and with characters who drive the plot as much as the far-fetched device of a vote in parliament..." Read more
"This story is clever, realistic, and over all enjoyed it. I liked the characters, etc...." Read more
"...So glad I found her, she's a new author for me. I enjoy reading her hero's thoughts, and about their emotions...." Read more
Customers enjoy the writing quality of the book. They find the story eloquent and literary, with solid prose and wonderful scenes. The narration is interesting, the characterization is masterful, and the narrative flows well. The descriptions are wonderful.
"...The characterization is masterful; you don't just see characters walking on a stage, but you see how they grow and mature as events seem to be..." Read more
"...read romance and generally prefer books that are character-driven, literary, and filled with solid prose rather than the cliches that mar nearly..." Read more
"...The descriptions are wonderful, and Ms. Milan does an awesome job of staying away from cliches, both in love scenes and just in general...." Read more
"...setup/style provided so much background information and the author extras were fantastic. Ash is quite the unbelievably self-made man...." Read more
Customers enjoy the emotional content of the book. They find the plot engaging and the writing beautiful. The characters are described as caring, selfless, and kind. Readers appreciate the humanity and intelligence of the characters. The story moves them to tears with its unexpected resolution.
"...you care about the characters, and they continue to surprise you with their humanity, basic intelligence, and ability to think and act like real..." Read more
"...now spends her time writing the smartest, beautifully-plotted, emotionally-rich, gorgeously-written historical romance I've ever read...." Read more
"...The emotions feel real and believable, and the characters, both primary and secondary, are masterfully constructed...." Read more
"...This, for me, had the intelligence, but also had an emotional element...." Read more
Customers enjoy the book's charm, intelligence, and well-crafted plot. They find the characters appealing and the writing unique.
"...Plus, it's both romantic and sexy. Perfect beach read. This author writes well and tells a good story, with believable characters...." Read more
"...law for awhile, she now spends her time writing the smartest, beautifully-plotted, emotionally-rich, gorgeously-written historical romance I've ever..." Read more
"...Thanks, Courtney Milan! So, back to this beautiful, wonderful, inspiring book...." Read more
"...Unveiled was a beautifully, cleverly written book that had me aching for a happily ever after...." Read more
Customers find the book relatable and honest. They describe the characters as loyal, believable, and honest. The plot is described as clever and realistic.
"...At its core, this is a book about the layers of loyalty (and disloyalty), trust (and mistrust), and love (and enmity) that make up relationships and..." Read more
"...The emotions feel real and believable, and the characters, both primary and secondary, are masterfully constructed...." Read more
"...with the heroine, Margaret, he is supportive, kind, protective, loyal, and extremely empathetic...." Read more
"...the emotions elicited in this book were deep and real...." Read more
Customers enjoy the book's entertainment value. They find the story engaging and exciting, with an interactive experience throughout.
"...I found the entire series to be thought provoking and entertaining...." Read more
"...The book was completely engaging from the very beginning, and kept me enthralled throughout. The characters were well rounded and believable...." Read more
"...More genuine than most male protagonists in historicals, and a lot more fun. I am dying to read more from Mark and Smite...." Read more
"Really enjoyable romance. The story is interesting and engaging. Nice plot twists and I can't wait to read the rest of the series." Read more
Top reviews from the United States
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- Reviewed in the United States on August 13, 2011First of all, it must be understood that I am a historical romance junkie, and I enjoy reading them even though I have to admit that by now they all seem to follow similar patterns and there isn't a lot that surprises me anymore. But I just don't care. I read 'em anyway.
But this book just blew me away. Of course, I knew from the synopsis that the heroine's deception would drive the two lovers apart, because that is what always happens in these books. Guess what? It didn't. That was a nice surprise. But even then, I had a pretty good idea of what was going to happen after that--although I have to confess that I wondered why there were still so many pages left in the book--and guess what? Wrong again. And then would you believe that I fell for it again? I'm such a sucker! I should have felt outraged at being so deftly deceived by this clever author, but I was too busy wiping tears away while racing through the book to see what happened next. So I guess you are forgiven, Ms. Milan.
Throughout the book I had the overwhelming conviction that these two characters really love each other, so much that they do not fall for the typical misunderstandings that one finds so frequently in these books, not even in the catastrophic circumstances facing them that seem to prevent any sort of happy ending. The characterization is masterful; you don't just see characters walking on a stage, but you see how they grow and mature as events seem to be driving them further and further apart, and when you finally get to the end, you feel convinced that this is the way it really did happen. In real life.
It may well be that English courts would never have considered legitimizing children of a peer's bigamous marriage--I do have my doubts--but this is one time I have to admit that I REALLY DO NOT CARE! I am not a lawyer and I don't know how screwed up the English legal system could have been back then, but everything else seemed real enough, and I thought the intricacy of the plot was absolutely brilliant
As an aspiring author myself, I was humbled by this author's unbelievable talent (and no, I do not know her), and I am already mulling over what I need to do to make my own characters come to life so vividly.
I would give this book TEN STARS if I could. And I will definitely be looking for more from Courtney Milan.
- Reviewed in the United States on March 8, 2011If you like historical romance, you'll love it.
If you're like me and don't read romance and generally prefer books that are character-driven, literary, and filled with solid prose rather than the cliches that mar nearly every romance and popular fiction book out there, you will enjoy this. It's good. And it's not filled with cliches and purple prose.
No, it's not "literary fiction." (I don't mean that as a slur--this is just a different kind of fiction.) But it's the best kind of genre fiction, well-written and with characters who drive the plot as much as the far-fetched device of a vote in parliament to declare illegitimate children legal heirs. Within a chapter, you care about the characters, and they continue to surprise you with their humanity, basic intelligence, and ability to think and act like real adults, unlike the romance heroines and heros of the romances I recalled from the 80s bodice-rippers--you know the kind, the heroines who act in ways so immature and idiotic that even a teen in the throes of an I-hate-you-no-one-understands-me hissy fit wouldn't act like that.
Plus, it's both romantic and sexy. Perfect beach read.
This author writes well and tells a good story, with believable characters. I'll read more Milan on the beach and whenever I'm looking for a greater escape than my usual fare.
- Reviewed in the United States on November 17, 2013Courtney Milan is easily, far and away, my favorite author of historical romance. She has a graduate degree in theoretical physical chemistry from UC Berkeley and graduated summa cum laude from law school at the University of Michigan, and after clerking for important judges and teaching law for awhile, she now spends her time writing the smartest, beautifully-plotted, emotionally-rich, gorgeously-written historical romance I've ever read. I live in wait for her books, and in between new releases, I re-read what she's written before. This week, I re-read Unveiled for the third time, and if you've never read it, get it and put it right at the top of your TBR pile right now.
Unveiled is the first book of the Turner trilogy, which tell the stories of the Turner brothers, three brilliant men who have risen from modest beginnings to the top of Victorian English society despite a tortured childhood. After the death of their father, their pious-to-the-point-of-insanity mother gave everything the family had to the Church, leaving herself and her four children with nothing. When the only daughter, Hope, became sickened after a rat bite, the oldest child, Ash, walked twenty miles in order to beg the Duke of Parford (a distant relation) for enough money to hire a doctor to treat her. Parford only gave him a coin with which to buy himself a bath, the sister died, and Ash grew up determined to avenge this injustice.
When Unveiled begins, Ash is on the cusp of accomplishing that revenge. He has discovered that Parford secretly married his mistress before he married the mother of his children. By unveiling (note this word: it's the book title for a reason) the duke's bigamy, Ash has had that second marriage nullified, Parford's children declared bastards and stripped of their inheritance, and himself installed as heir-apparent to the ailing duke. Parford's grown children, the Dalrymples, will lose everything unless they can convince Parliament to pass a rare act re-legitimizing them and restoring their inheritance.
Ash and his youngest brother, Mark, go to Parford Manor to examine the estate. Ash believes that the Dalrymples are not in residence, but in fact the duke's daughter, Margaret, is posing as a lowly servant in order to keep an eye on the Turners and report back to her absent brothers.
At its core, this is a book about the layers of loyalty (and disloyalty), trust (and mistrust), and love (and enmity) that make up relationships and the way these layers obscure the characters' ability to see one another and, sometimes, themselves. Over and over again, characters mistake one another. Ash mistakes Margaret for a servant because she masquerades as a servant, but many of the mistakes are not as straight-forward. For example, Ash's brothers don't understand him because they are men of learning while Ash is a man of instinct and charisma; they don't realize that Ash doesn't mean to be dismissive of their intellectual pursuits, but being dyslexic, he can't read Mark's book or share Smite's study of the law. In another instance, Ash is stung (and Margaret is offended on his behalf), when Smite comes to Parford Manor and seems to snub Ash, but it turns out that, though he and Ash can't show each other their true feelings, Smite is motivated by love and concern for Ash rather than malice.
Although Ash and Margaret are set up as antagonists (in that Ash's success is literally Margaret's ruin), they bond because they are the same: both fiercely loyal to and devoted to their families, even though that devotion isn't requited (or in Ash's case, doesn't appear to be requited). Margaret's father is cruelly dismissive of her; her brothers are, at best, benignly inattentive to her situation, and at worst, cravenly unconcerned. Similarly, everything Ash does is motivated by love for his brothers, but Mark and Smite lived through childhood tragedies while Ash was in India (making a fortune in order to save them from poverty) and share a love of learning, and the two younger brothers share a bond that, intentionally or not, sets Ash forever apart.
Ultimately, it is this sense of being outsiders to all others that allows Ash and Margaret to come together when all rational thought should keep them apart: they each crave acceptance and find it, not with their families, but with each other.
- Reviewed in the United States on August 4, 2011This story is clever, realistic, and over all enjoyed it. I liked the characters, etc. I gave this three stars because I never fell in love with the book or the characters or their love story. On fact, it was so realistic that it lost the "romance" part that makes reading these types of books fun. I felt like the story was boring and I kept waiting for it to pick up...
Top reviews from other countries
- LillReviewed in Canada on February 7, 2016
4.0 out of 5 stars Four Stars
an amazing read, thanks Courtney!
-
MerleReviewed in Germany on April 2, 2014
5.0 out of 5 stars Schöne Post-Regency-Geschichte
Der gut geschriebene Liebesroman spielt in der Anfangszeit von Queen Victoria, allerdings ohne grosse geschichtlichen Erwähnungen.
Die Kinder des sich dem Lebensende nähernden Duke of Parford erfahren überraschend, dass die Ehe ihrer Eltern ungültig ist und sie damit illegitim, also nicht erbberechtigt sind. Der nächste, zukünftige Duke ist ein entfernter Verwandter, der Emporkömmling Ash Turner, der sich darüber freut, seinen verhassten Verwandten schaden zu können.
Zwecks Inventur findet sich Ash auf dem Landsitz des sterbenden Duke's ein und macht die Bekanntschaft der faszinierenden Krankenschwester Margaret, die in Wirklichkeit die Tochter des Herzog's ist.
Diese Geschichte ist überraschend gut, die Charaktere interessant gezeichnet. Man lebt mit und bemitleidet die unschuldige und liebenswerte Margaret. Egal was sie macht, sie kann es nicht richtig machen; sie steht in einem unlösbaren Loyalitätskonflikt. Die Lösung ist schlussendlich gut gewählt und stimmig. Und bewundernswert ist der Lebensweg von Ash, auch wenn er kleine Fehler hat und stur ist. Eine kurzweilige und herzerweichende Geschichte, geeignet für Liebhaberinnen des Genres.
- RoscoReviewed in Canada on August 24, 2018
1.0 out of 5 stars Too verbose for me
The storyline is good but the verbosity of it all seems to drag the story that I lost interest at a quarter of the book. It became boring. I skimmed through it and skipped chapters.
- Miss HReviewed in Germany on May 2, 2015
4.0 out of 5 stars 4 stars book but 3 stars for me
In all truthfulness I wanted to give the book a 3 stars. But I don't think that would be fair for the book. The book itself is a great fun to read. It has substance, so you must take time to digest. It's written well, so you are not struggling to follow the writing. It's just not the kind of story that makes me ache for it. But again, I want to be fair to the book. It is a 4 stars book in its own right. But for me it was a 3 stars kind of reading experience.
I will say a few things that bothered me:
1. Ash isn't upset that Margaret lied about her identity?? I mean not even a little?? He doesn't need 15 minutes to recover??
2. Margaret's brother Richard sacrificed her to gain back his dukedom. Soooo unattractive.
3. Ash's unwavering love. I can accept that he had "instincts" about Margaret. and I think it's nice for once to read a hero who is not heartless. But love isn't always pretty. Love hurts and ridicules. It does with Margaret. But Ash is all loving and forgiving. I find it a bit odd, considering the context.
I like the book for another reason: it grabs you but is asking you to take the time to read. Some books of similar length are sweet and all but oh so very brainless. you go through them like breakfast. this book is dinner material.
- Kindle CustomerReviewed in the United Kingdom on July 30, 2013
4.0 out of 5 stars Lovely book
I loved the story, the characters were well drawn and the storyline was interesting. Will definitely put it in my favourites and enjoy reading it again.