Guest Review: The Price of Temptation by Lecia Cornwall

Posted February 27, 2012 by Book Binge Guest Blogger in Reviews | 1 Comment

Publisher: Avon, Harper Collins

Judith’s review of The Price of Temptation by Lecia Cornwall.

 

Once wed to England’s most notorious turncoat…

Lady Evelyn Renshaw can ignore the disgrace her former husband has brought down upon her. She can even disregard the accusations. But when her life is threatened because of his actions, she realizes a stiff upper lip won’t be enough to keep her safe. So she hires a new footman powerful enough to protect her…only to find herself shamelessly intoxicated by his breathtaking masculinity.

Captain Sinjon Rutherford is no footman…but there are those who believe him a traitor. The only way to prove his innocence is by playing the part of elegant Lady Evelyn’s servant in order to infiltrate her home and uncover the truth about her suspicious relations. Yet what seems at first an easy deception is anything but, once he meets his alluring new employer and discovers just how tempting woman in charge can be… Because sometimes passion hides in plain sight.

Few Americans realize the close proximity of the British Isles to the European Continent and especially to the coast of France. Of course, we are aware intellectually, but living in the sprawling area known as the United States ill prepares us to recognize what it feels like to live so close to one’s enemies and to have to exist in a society that has come to see an individual as a social pariah simply because one’s spouse is a traitor. The United States has certainly has its armed conflicts and we have had a decade or longer in the present wars in the Middle East, but for England during the Napoleonic Era, safety was an illusion and the influence of power and money caused more than one citizen to lay aside patriotism and love of country.

This novel is about a woman who is a prisoner in her own home, a target of her family’s derision, and a “person of interest” for those who are on the constant look-out for traitors to the English cause. Evelyn is a woman of strong purpose and ideals, a person of honor who has been raised to seek justice and the good of others, and to have a heart of compassion for the down-trodden. Yet when her own life is thrown into the perverbial slop bucket, she is abandoned by all her so-called friends, becomes the long-suffering target of her sisters’ constant interference in her life, and must sell items from her husband’s collections in order to just survive. She even becomes the object of a French spy’s attack who is seeking an artifact that her husband probably stole in order to further his crazy goal of becoming important to the rulers of France. In the midst of her attack she is rescued by an English military officer who is himself the object of another’s foul play and who is a fugitive from justice having been falsely accused by a rogue aristocrat.

This novel is an in-depth look into the less than noble aspects of English society during a military conflict that had, by this time, changed the face of Europe and which was becoming a life and death struggle within England as well, although many of the “beautiful people” chose to ignore that fact. Trusting as she was, Evelyn is a woman who still knows that she has been cheated by society out of any possibility of love and children, abandoned by a husband who cared for her not at all–leaving even without a word–and one who is slowly but surely gaining in her sense of self as she becomes a true survivor. This is a love story between two unlikely individuals–unlikely in the sense that Evelyn is attracted to a man she believes to be her footman, and involving a man who must also work not only to stay out of the hangman’s noose but who must find a way to prove his innocence. It is also a lovely historical novel that brings contemporary readers into the salons and ballrooms of high society as do most historicals, but one that also introduces the reader to aristocrats who are laying their lives, their reputations and their fortunes on the line to work for the good of their country undercover.

This novel reads beautifully and moves along well. There is the tension of not knowing the whereabouts of Evelyn’s husband, the difficulties with the erstwhile gentleman playing footman in order to gather information, there is the continuing sexual tension between Evelyn and her lover, and the awareness of the reader that Evelyn is a woman besieged by government and law enforcement on the one hand, and by her sassy and self-centered sisters and their pompous spouses.

This is a book that historical romance fans will enjoy thoroughly. It is a really fine read and one that will be a delightful way to spend some quality reading time.

I give this book a rating of 4 out of 5

You can read more from Judith at Dr J’s Book Place.

This book is available from Avon. You can buy it here or here in e-format.


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