Review: Kate Harper At Her Best
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 05 7, 2014
I truly enjoy Kate Harper's books and in fact have all her books on my Kindle. White Knight (The Oxford Pact Series) looks to be the first book in a new series which focuses on three men who have been friends since their Oxford school days - Merrick St Arnould, James Foxley St Severn (Fox) and Thornton St Giles (Thorn).  Due to their lifestyle of gaming, brawling and wenching, they were termed "The Unholy Three" by their contemporaries. In fairness to the three young men, their attitude toward life and love was, in part, due to less than happy home lives, being the offspring of parents who had joined in marriages of convenience as opposed to marriages of love.  Overall, the three young men have a very jaded view of life and made an agreement then and there that when the time came to select a wife - at some distant point in the future, of course - they would put their heads together and help one another select the right girl for the job (the Oxford Pact).Fast forward seven years and not a lot has changed except they are older, even more jaded and are now called The White Knights - a somewhat cynical appellation which is of course the total opposite of their dissolute reputations.  Although they have continued in their wastrel ways, they have, on occasion and individually worked as "agents" of a sort for the government - taking on the occasional job mostly due to boredom.  When Merrick St Arnould is contacted by Lord Farris for a covert operation, Merrick is at first hesitant because it would involve his attendance at a house party - something he normally would not make part of his life because it would be too boring by half.  However, Lord Farris knows that Merrick's father is near death and that Merrick is considering marriage at last.  Further, Merrick is interested in Lord and Lady Mallow's daughter - Lorraine Mallow, as a potential wife - and, it seems the house party is scheduled to take place at the Mallows' country estate.The subjects of the government's interest are two individuals who are royals traveling through England - Archduke Rudolph of Kryonburg and his wife, the Archduchess Elena, who are apparently intent on gathering information for the French government and have been assigned this task by no less than Robespierre himself. Merrick is absolutely dumbfounded when he is requested to assassinate Elena because she is carrying dangerous information - not actual papers or documents but information contained in her head - that must not be allowed out of England. It seems that Elena has a talent for "remembering" - apparently inherited from her mother.Merrick reluctantly accepts his assignment which will allow him to become better acquainted with Lorraine Mallow to determine whether or not she will fit into his idea of what a wife should be - "not-too-intelligent, placid and willing."  For, after all, the Unholy Three had agreed and decreed those were the most important attributes one should desire in a wife when they were young bucks at Oxford and certainly, nothing has changed their minds - at least up to this point in time.  In addition, Merrick does want to serve his country and he might be willing to murder the archduchess, but it makes him ill to think of killing a woman - even a woman who is guilty of treachery.When Merrick arrives at the house party - things take off with a bang.  He is immediately and unreasonably attracted to the lovely Elena.  Plus, it seems that Miss Mallow has someone besides Merrick in her sights and to make matters worse, Merrick isn't the only one with an assignment to kill the lovely Elena.  There might be more to Elena that meets the eye and Merrick might have finally met his match. The reader soon realizes that Merrick is in way over his head and has lost all rationality when it comes to Elena who is not anyone he will ever be able to forget, so how in the world is he going to be able to complete his assignment?  She's extremely intelligent, not at all placid but perhaps she might be "willing" - at least a little?  How fun it is to see his type fall hard and fast without any logic or reason.  I won't spoil the story by giving away specific details, but this was an awesome read and I'm looking forward to reading Fox's and Thorn's stories - especially Thorn's.