Review: a delightful surprise
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 12 28, 2013
Joanna Chambers’ Provoked has been a discovery. It is really well written, and the characters portrayed are plausible and realistic, not only both main characters but also the secondary ones. It provides us with a vivid and reliable image of how life was at the time. Set in Scotland in the nineteenth century, it depicts an age of turmoil when birth and social conventions were conclusive at defining who you were and what you would be able to become. David Lauriston knows this very well. Born as the second son of a tenant farmer in a little village, he moves to Edinburgh to study and become a lawyer. He earns little and works hard to make himself a name. His life is not easy, and meeting Lord Murdo Balfour is going to make it even more difficult. Balfour is a hedonist, an unrepentant rake who plans to enjoy everything life may provide. After sharing dinner as strangers in an inn where their paths happen to cross, they share a scorching sexual encounter in a dingy lane which David seems unable to forget. That’s why when they meet again “in society”, David knows it means trouble. David feels deeply attracted by the debauched Lord, who shares his interest but disconcerts David by telling him that he means to marry and live a respectable life, while indulging the secret pleasures he finds in men.David and Balfour are so different. Balfour is at easy with himself; he is a cynic who has no guilty conscience whatsoever. On the other hand, David is in perpetual fight with himself and his instincts. He was betrayed by his first love, and he is convinced that his “unnatural” tendency is a sin which will lead his soul to be eventually doomed. Despite their differences, the chemistry between them is undeniable. Unknowingly, they fall for each other, but they are both stubborn men of strong emotions, and this is what leads them to a breakup. This first chapter of their story together does not end well. When they part, they are not on friendly terms. I just can’t wait to find out what happens in the next book. I like haunted characters as much as I like mischievous ones. This story has everything I like in a novel: strong characters, and interesting setting and a tormented love story. What else can a girl ask for!!!