Lady Imogen Loveless doesn’t exactly fit in with London high society. She has a passion for chemistry and a talent for explosions4.5 stars rounded up.
Lady Imogen Loveless doesn’t exactly fit in with London high society. She has a passion for chemistry and a talent for explosions which has seen her labeled as odd. But that doesn’t matter to Imogen as long as her chaos is accepted by her friends, the Hell’s Belles, a group of vigilantes working right under the nose of most of London.
Detective Inspector Thomas Peck is excellent at his job, however, and he knows immediately that Imogen is pure chaos, not an oddity. He thinks she needs someone to keep her safe, and when her brother discovers more about what she’s been up to, he wholeheartedly agrees.
Thomas is determined to keep Imogen safe, all the while struggling to contain his attraction to the woman he sees as miles above him. Imogen has no such qualms, however, and soon the connection between them threatens them both just as much as their enemies.
This book may just be my favorite ever from this author. She has been very hit or miss for me and this series in particular has been a bit disappointing for me, but this book has changed that for the better. For a while there, I feared we were about to go right down the same old road full of misandry, but thankfully that thread changed direction quickly. Tommy was noble even to a fault and I loved that Imogen appreciated this about him yet also saw how it could make him vulnerable. They each protected the other and I loved that, especially when she finally confided in him, and they began to work together as a team. I just wish that had come sooner in the book, rather than them only getting things together nearer the end. I did really appreciate that they had quite a few conversations that were deep and serious, sometimes uncomfortable, but they never resorted to sniping at one another like petulant children. This often seems to be the modus operandi for the currently fashionable ‘strong heroine’ and I am thoroughly sick of reading it. Anyway, Tommy definitely had moments where he needed to take a second and listen, setting aside his strict adhesion to nobility, but it didn’t take him long to realize when he’d gone too far with it and Imogen wasn’t afraid to point it out either. I did want maybe one more chapter after everything was worked out, or perhaps a scene with Imogen and Tommy and her brother just to make everything feel more complete, but overall, I was surprised by how much I really liked these two together and now I have some hope for Duchess’ story.
Rather than his proper name or his title, the Duke of Lamont, Temple has spent the past twelve years going by a nickname and more commonly referred toRather than his proper name or his title, the Duke of Lamont, Temple has spent the past twelve years going by a nickname and more commonly referred to as the Killer Duke. He was accused of murdering Mara Lowe on the night before her wedding and with no memory of the night in question, he was forced to spend the past twelve years in exile, ruling London’s seediest corners. He has both wealth and power but has been stripped of his family and reputation, until one night Mara reappears, offering him the chance to learn the truth and restore his position.
Mara had always intended to run and never return, but with her brother having lost both of their funds and indebted himself to Temple’s casino, she sees no other recourse but to offer Temple a bargain that would see her showing her face in society once more to prove them all that he’s not a killer.
Temple is agreeable to the trade until he begins to learn that both Mara and their shared past have more depths than he originally thought. He finds himself unwittingly drawn to the woman even as she infuriates him and she soon has him willing to put everything on the line for the chance to solidify the powerful connection between them into a lasting love.
I’m not sure where to even begin with this book other than to warn that this review is going to be one of those that’s more of a rant/venting session. The writing and narration were both spot on, but those are about the only things that worked for me here. So, unpopular opinions and potential spoilers ahead.
First off, I adored Temple as a hero and have been so looking forward to his story and seeing him finally have his honor restored. He was brooding and damaged and all the qualities in a hero that are catnip to me and yet, I feel like he got shafted by this book. He deserved the love he was denied by his family for twelve years, the acceptance, the respect, the right to have people look at him without fearing for their lives. In short, everything that was stolen for him through no fault of his own. And yet, I don’t really think that’s what he got. Sure, he was left ostensibly happy, finally restored to his country estate with the love of his life and raising a passel of orphans, but it just didn’t feel satisfying for me the way it apparently was for him.
So, what derailed this for me? In short, Mara. She was just not a heroine I could get behind. I can definitely see why she felt so desperate in the situation she was placed in by her cruel father, and she was only sixteen at the time, but she went about extricating herself from her circumstances with zero concern for the consequences that might arise for anyone else. She then had the absolute nerve to take the moral high ground with Temple. She started off hating him and I was just so puzzled by where that animosity on her part was coming from. She was the one who wronged him in the first place, not the other way around. Sure, his behavior towards her when he realizes who she is and that he didn’t actually kill her isn’t exactly gentlemanly, but I do think it’s understandable considering that he (a) thought he might’ve actually been a killer, and (b) had his life ruined and was ousted from his family and forced to live on the streets because of her. Additionally, Mara made tons of assumptions about how things had been for Temple and completely dismissed all the damage she’d done to his life because he still had money, was attractive and held a powerful position at the Fallen Angel. Meanwhile, Mara has been living in penury and running a small orphanage so she’s able to completely excuse what she did. I also could not get behind the idea that Temple was the one in need of redemption. Even when she comes to regret her rash actions and wish she could go back and change them, I didn’t believe her to be truly remorseful because her behavior toward Temple reflected not even a smidgen of that emotion.
I could perhaps forgive Mara’s childish mistake but not her refusal to face the consequences of what her actions did to Temple and try to fix them. Even once she’d spent some time with Temple and realized that he was a good man who didn’t deserve any of what he’d suffered, she still won’t just tell him that Kit also gambled away the orphanage’s funds and that’s why she needed help. It’s obvious to anyone that Temple would’ve gladly helped those children. The whole thing just doesn’t add up and it’s quite a flimsy plot. Mara was manipulative and for no reason I could discern. She had no reason to withhold Temple’s memories of that fateful night, but she did it anyway. She acted like she needed all this power over him when he had literally never done anything to harm her. Quite the opposite in fact, so I was just left questioning her motives in everything.
I did not find Mara to be the strong, independent heroine I’m sure I was meant to see. Rather, she was a manipulator who had no problem drugging innocent men to further her own ends. That is behavior I wouldn’t tolerate or excuse from a hero and I hold heroines to the same standard. She then holds a memory over this poor man’s head, a memory that she stole from him, mind you that in so doing she also stole his family, his reputation, and his respect/self-worth for the past 12 years, and she still has the audacity to make a bargain with him, insisting he pay for those memories if he wants her to consider revealing that truth to him. She appeared to feel no remorse or she would have done something to reveal herself alive before now. It was obvious that she was only doing any of this now because her brother had left her in such dire financial straits. I can only presume that if he had not, if she had kept the orphanage’s funds, she would’ve possibly never revealed herself to be alive, Temple would’ve never learned the truth, and his reputation would have never been cleared.
Temple deserved someone who finally saw him and would take care of him for once. I’d have liked this story much more if some other heroine had come along to save him from Mara. If she had just offered a genuine apology, and much sooner, that might’ve made Mara redeemable for me, but her redemption arc with the orphanage just felt contrived and unsubstantial. She was completely in the wrong here and still trying to act the martyr and that only made her more unlikable to me rather than rallying me to her cause. Even when Temple was about to reveal her, she thought he was doing so because he missed his life of privilege, and she still wouldn’t acknowledge all that she took from him. Even in telling the truth about what happened that night, Mara still made it all about herself and how those events affected her. At the end, Temple wasn’t even allowed to maintain his pride and on top of the annoyances this story presented me with.
On the whole, I was left wondering how Temple could ever have a trusting, loving relationship with Mara. He clearly felt a physical lust for her, and a very reluctant one at that, but I’m not sure how or why that became a deeper connection and I’m not sure I bought it. It also didn’t help that this story drug on much longer than it needed to. I guess this is one of those hit or miss series for me, unfortunately, but I am surprised to have the pendulum swinging so violently because I loved the first book and yet the second and third have been utter misses for me. Oh well. I’m still hopeful for Chase’s book anyway.
Niki (mustreadalltheromance)
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