Review: Far too intriguing to stop turning pages
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 08 16, 2012
How love grows out of such an inauspicious beginning is incredible. Jenny Smith and Benedict de Malorie are not the usual kind of hero and heroine. She is a pickpocket and Benedict has no concern about taking her virginity in a dark alley of London. Yet, the true nature of each of them comes to the fore as the story unfolds and one sees how they came to be who they are morally.Jenny does what she knows how to do to keep body and soul together and goes that last mile to give her child a better life than she could offer her.Benedict, who becomes the earl of Trevisan, does what he knows to do to save the family estate. However, his awareness of how he became to earl creates post traumatic stress disorder that plagues him even seven years after the fact.The way Jenny and Benedict are brought back together after seven years seems too contrived to be believable for me; but I really wanted to know how these two characters fare as time goes on. I kept reading and became engrossed in the intrigues, murder attempts, social manipulations, chicanery, and the unique relationship Jenny and Benedict develop.A delightful part of this story is six-year-old Sarah. This much-loved child makes the story sparkle at times.The foreshadowing that hints at who the antagonist is threads through the story in subtle fashion, but it is still a shock to see who it is and just how diabolical and to what lengths he is willing to go to get what he wants."The Malorie Phoenix" has an interesting array of secondary characters. Even the dead Roly Ansett' who was Jenny protector, plays an important role in the outcome. Little Billy, a most unusual horse, is a major influence in the development of events. Some of the characters that one would least expect bring in humor that makes one chuckle while other characters depict true loyalty to both Benedict and Jenny."The Malorie Phoenix" is a story of redemption. While it doesn't, at least for me, flow smoothly at times, it is far too intriguing to stop turning pages. It is satisfying to see such flawed characters grow into what they were meant to be and find their happy-ever-after. Theirs is not an easy journey.