Review: Intriguing start to a new series
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 01 30, 2014
This is the first in a series by Bronwyn Evans. The series will feature the lovely alpha males of the Libertine Scholars. They were brilliant at school, and are equally brilliant in their pursuit of women.This could be listed as a "Beauty and the Beast" story. Christian was horribly burned during the war and his confidence where women are concerned is nil. He feels the only way to have female companionship is to pay for it. Unfortunately when he has done so one evening, he's caught at sword point by a raving father and brother. Their daughter and sister has been raped, and she's saying Christian did it. While he can't believe he's done such a thing, his memory of the night is missing and he is thrown onto a ship and sent to Canada.Finally, his memory returns and he decides he must face his accusers. But he is now the guardian of a young girl and needs a governess for her.Enter Sarah Cooper, a woman who he's immediately attracted to. She has her own secrets and we all know that nothing good can come of this. They are attracted to each other and agree to be "close" for the length of the voyage back to England.Of course, we all know they aren't going to be able to stay away from each other. Add in the mystery of who framed Christian and when will Sarah's ghosts come back to haunt her, and we have some tense scenes.I liked the them of this, the Beauty and the Best theme...I like the fact that we are going to see more of the Libertine Scholars. What I didn't like was the repetition throughout the book. I think a reader understands when the first time they read that the guy has paid for "services." Or when the girl is worried about "........." But there was so much repeating here of what each of them worried about, that I just kept skimming and thinking: I read that already!Skimming, not what an author wants a reader to do. Sometimes I wonder if authors write their books during NaNoWriMo and they are looking to pad their word count. Harsh? Maybe. But readers don't need to have the same thoughts pounded into their kindles over and over.I dropped the rating down a whole mark for that, in addition to the fact that I thought some scenes were skipped. I kept looking back to see if I had missed something. Some scenes just skipped forward. Of course, this is an ARC and some of that might be fixed in the final edits.After saying all of this, I do want to say that I did mostly enjoy it. The Libertine Scholars are a varied group of alpha men and I look forward to seeing more of them.*Thank you, NetGalley and Loveswept, for the opportunity to read A Kiss of LiesThe second book in The Disgraced Lords Series, A Promise of More, comes out on 4/15/2015.