Starred review from June 26, 2017
Jordan’s fifth Legendary Lovers Regency romance (after The Art of Taming a Rake), a gender-swapped take on My Fair Lady, is a beautifully crafted adventure filled with passion and peril. When Brandon Deverill was 27, he cruelly rejected 18-year-old Lady Katharine Wilde. Six years later, they’re reunited, but purely for practical purposes: Brandon, a merchant and former privateer, needs someone noble to transform him into a gentleman and find him a wife, and Kate needs someone seaworthy to guard her on a dangerous voyage to France. Jordan cleverly weaves backstory into the couple’s reunion, effectively contrasting their actions and entertaining banter with their secret thoughts and feelings. The dialogue is consistently period-accurate and amplifies the contrast between forbidden lust and the mask of chivalry and respectability beneath which it hides. As passion rises, so does danger, for their journey brings Brandon face-to-face with a former nemesis, Jean Louvel. Readers will savor this splendid installment of a consistently strong series. Agent: Karen Solem, Spencerhill Associates.
July 1, 2017
A Regency-era matchmaker thinks she has found the perfect bride for a family friend--herself.Lady Katherine Wilde has spent six years trying to live down the humiliation of throwing herself at rich American merchant Brandon Deverill and having him chivalrously refuse to sleep with her. But now he has returned to England to take up the title of Baron Valmere, which he inherited from a distant relative, and she has promised to help him find a bride befitting his new title. Kate and Brandon are going through the motions of evaluating other candidates, but they are both secretly wondering--would they make a good match? The biggest hurdle is Kate's dream of romance. Brandon grew up in a loveless household and suffered emotional trauma when he fought for his American homeland against British friends in the War of 1812. As a result, he's not big on feelings. But Kate wants something more--a legendary love like the ones written about in Greek legends. The fifth book in Jordan's (The Art of Taming a Rake, 2016, etc.) Legendary Lovers series is a spin on My Fair Lady, which is in turn a spin on the myth of Pygmalion. Kate wants to remake the rough-edged American privateer into a polished English gentleman who is capable of expressing his feelings. Brandon wants to convince Kate to marry him even though he doesn't love her. They manage to have a lot of illicit sex while Kate's family looks the other way and even go treasure-hunting off the coast of France. The steamier scenes are well-written, although in general the prose is a bit flowery and overblown. Still, both Kate and Brandon are likable characters who grow during the novel. An adventurous story about what can be achieved if we stick to our ideals.
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August 1, 2017
Six years after she totally humiliated herself in front of Brandon Deverill, Katharine Wilde is back in his hotel room hoping this encounter will be different. No seduction this time; instead she intends to turn Brandon, who has recently inherited the title of Baron Valmere, from a brash American privateer into the most sought-after nobleman in London. With the latest entrancing tale in her Legendary Lovers series, Jordan (The Art of Taming a Rake, 2016) puts a sexy twist on Pygmalion, and her flair for fusing smoldering love scenes with a plot spiked with action and danger makes her books a must-read for fans of old-school historical romances by the likes of Kathleen Woodiwiss and Judith McNaught.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)