Review: Sebastian and Julia
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 03 22, 2014
Second son, Sebastian, returns from the war to find his older brother has gambled away the family estate and escaped to exile in France.  Sebastian travels to Bath in an attempt to win enough money to buy back the estate and restore the family's wealth.Julia's father has inherited an estate near Bath with funds to take care of his family for life. But Julia finds an IOU in her father's coat pocket and sets out to confront the holder of the vowels and plead for mercy, hoping he will cancel the debt as others she previously talked to have done. When she encounters Sebastian, however, he refuses her request, and that night he wins the estate as well. Julia's father is so distraught that he ends up dead, either by accident or suicide.Empathy with Julia's family leads Sebastian  to present a solution to their problems. He proposes marriage to Julia's younger, more pliable sister.  To save Sarah from 'Lord Satan', Julia devises a plan to impersonate Sarah at the wedding.  Afterward, Julia and Sebastian travel to London, encountering Andre and Devon Raveneau, who have acquired Sebastian's family townhouse from his brother to fund his exile. That loss leaves Sebastian and his bride with only his mother's family estate in Cornwall, which he despises, which has been in disrepair for decades and with no funds to restore it.This is an excellent addition to the Raveneau/Beauvisage series of novels. Though it can easily stand alone, it takes place in 1798 and fits chronologically between Spring Fires and Surrender the Stars. I am now looking forward to book two in this series and to the St. Briac's series.  I definitely recommend and will reread this book. And if you like it you will probably also like author Kasey Michael's entertaining Romney Marsh series about a former privateer and his brood of adopted orphans.