Review: Good historical romance
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 03 17, 2014
This book is the second in a series, but all three stand alone well. The story was well written and well edited with a good plot and complex, interesting characters. Set in Ireland at the time of English occupation and Catholic persecution, the H is Padriac who lives a double life; one as a foppish English Lord who stripped his own Catholic father of his titles and lands, and the other as a smuggler and highwayman of the Robin Hood variety who helps the Irish poor as the "Rebel". He and his father came up with the idea when he was younger and being educated in England, as the English began stripping lands from "papists"and an avaricious cousin nearby began making noises about taking their lands.The h of the story is Lily, the daughter of an English nobleman who has a peculiar "gift" for healing people. It made her an oddity in England and when she couldn't heal her mother, it made her father hate her. He promised her in marriage to Padriac's cousin who wanted her to heal him,but she couldn't and she ran from his cruelty before he could force a marriage. Padriac's father took her in and married her to keep her safe, but was shot and killed within 2 weeks of the wedding. All this happened while Padriac was out on a smuggling run and he knew nothing about any of it until it was all over.Grieving, trying to adjust to a stranger in the house, and trying to keep his dual life secret prove to be quite a challenge for Padriac. Lily doesn't like her new English nobleman stepson at all, finding him obnoxious. But his cousin is coming around, trying to get her to marry him, now that she's a widow, and she really needs Padriac for protection. One night, unable to sleep, Lily walks down to the cliffs by the castle and encounters the Rebel to whom she is unaccountably attracted, and he to her. They exchange a very hot kiss in the moonlight. Oh, my! Things are going to get interesting.....!I enjoyed this story with it's twists and turns and laughed seeing the very masculine Padriac try to remember to be foppish and wear his makeup. The slow building of trust between him and Lily was nicely done as well. The villianous cousin, being driven mad from advanced syphilis, was really distasteful. I will definitely be looking for the other two books in the series, just to complete the circuit and find out more about some of the other characters. There are some sexual scenes in this book as well as some violence and mild profanity.Heat factor hot.