Elaine White's Life in Books

This review will be identical to that contained within Rowan McAllister's Greatest Hits (Historical) as seen here - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1557141972?book_show_action=false

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WARNING: light bondage (using cravats on wrists), deals with rape, though it's not explicit or on page.

Timeline - 1818

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There was nothing really wrong with this story. Historically, it was very accurate and appropriate for the times, though I had to look up the meanings of “Mrs. Radcliffe” (author of Gothic novels) and “knitbone unguent” (lubricant). Not being familiar with this era or Gothic novels, I had no knowledge of either of these and had to stop to look them up, which was frustrating.

I'm also not a fan of this introduction phase I've noticed in a lot of MM stories – particularly historical stories. It's very unnatural to be introduced to a character by their first and second name, status included if appropriate, when we're supposed to be inside their head. No one thinks like that and no one introduces themselves that way, unless they're James Bond, so it's become a pet peeve of mine and, unfortunately, this book has it.
“James, Lord James Alfred Warren, Viscount Sudbury, released a heavy sigh”

While discussing this, might I also mention the grammar errors. There are spaces before full stops, missing words (most often just one in a sentence, but it throws the whole sentence off) as well as formatting issues:
“country manners and
embarrass his sister and her family”

When it comes to storytelling, I found it all a little predictable. Once I knew who everyone was, it was clear what would happen and when. There were no surprises or moments of concern over characters fates, because it was all very clear that it would happen eventually. Also, the entire plot rang a little too closely to a story I read recently (different backgrounds and strength of characters, but the same overall principal of a high born man falling for a lowly born and rescuing him, thereby falling in love with him). In comparison, this one didn't live up to the other read.

The style the author chose to write in didn't suit me. There was a lot of colours flashing in the corner of the character's eye, drawing his attention to something; Anna sounded like a four-year-old before we were told she was nineteen, purely from the way she was portrayed; and there was too much telling instead of showing. Often, I wanted to read a scene that was skimmed over in a page or half a page, when things I didn't need to know were dragged out in detail.
Example: the time of Kyle and James' first day together, getting to know each other, is skimmed over in less than a page. Yet, later, half a page is dedicated to the concept of clean linens.
In the midst of all of this, there is a serious problem with the author unable to identify shifts in timeline. We begin one chapter with one paragraph about the present, then shift – without warning, notice, italics or a change in font – straight into detailed events of the past. Once that is over, we're returned to the present for one more paragraph, before a new chapter/scene, again without any warning. There's also an attempt to make an obvious dream seem like it may be real, by refusing to mark it as a dream with either warning, notice or italics, as is generally called for. The timeline is scattered and unclear, which makes reading it difficult, because I often had to go back and check I hadn't accidentally turned more than one page or that I hadn't missed something.

Overall, I liked the characters and the plot development. Although it was obvious, I did enjoy the story. It was the storytelling and writing style that let it down. I liked all the characters I was supposed to like – Kyle was feisty, though cried a lot (understandable given his story), Andrew was fun and James a strong Alpha male – while hating the ones I was supposed to hate, like Weir. However, without the separation of present and flashback scenes, there was a lot I didn't get to see that would have made the story better. That would have had more room to be shown if we weren't given the same scenes/events shown in two different POV's – James and Kyle's.

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FAVOURITE QUOTE

“Yes pretty bird, you sang and sang without even knowing you'd been put in a cage.”

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