Review: Unveiled by Courtney Milan.

Rowena’s review of Unveiled by Courtney Milan.

Hero: Ash Turner
Heroine: Anna Margaret Dalrymples

Ash Turner has waited a lifetime to seek revenge on the man who ruined his family—and now the time for justice has arrived. At Parford Manor, he intends to take his place as the rightful heir to the dukedom and settle an old score with the current duke once and for all. But instead he finds himself drawn to a tempting beauty who has the power to undo all his dreams of vengeance….

Lady Margaret knows she should despise the man who’s stolen her fortune and her father’s legacy—the man she’s been ordered to spy on in the guise of a nurse. Yet the more she learns about the new duke, the less she can resist his smoldering appeal. Soon Margaret and Ash find themselves torn between old loyalties—and the tantalizing promise of passion….

I’ve never read anything by Courtney Milan before but boy do I want to now. This was such a delightful read that it made my work bff comment on how much I was smiling at work. Actually, I think his exact words were, “Look at her smile, I bet you she’s reading a sex scene.” If I’m reading romance novels than odds are, I’m reading a historical and this book was a great historical.

Mr. Ash Turner is out for revenge against a distant cousin of his who turned him away when he was fourteen, poor and in desperate need for some money to help save his younger sister. After his father died, his mother went on a religious kick where she gave most all of their money away, leaving her kids starving. Being the oldest, Ash did as much as he could to take care of his siblings but after he came home from his titled distant (sixth cousin, twice removed) cousin without a dime and his sister died, he vowed that he would make that bastard pay and that his brothers would not want for anything. He went away to India to make his fortune and when he came, it was to find his brothers running the street and once again, he vowed to make things right for his brothers.

After some research and a trial, Ash becomes the heir to the Dukedom that would have gone to Richard Dalrymples but since his father was a big punk, Ash made sure that that wouldn’t be possible. He stole a dukedom and he wasn’t sorry about it because while he didn’t particularly care about the title, he wanted to make sure that his brothers never wanted for anything and one thing that I learned about Ash was that he took care of what was his. From his brothers to all of the people who serve under him, he took care of them all. He was such a stand up guy that made me laugh one moment and sigh the next moment. I loved him to pieces and ate up every scene that had him in it.

Anna Margaret Dalrymples is now a bastard thanks to that no good Mr. Ash Turner who took her father to trial and ruined her family. Ruined her family and ruined her future. Her fiance ran as fast as the wind would take him and people whispered about her behind their hands. The best she could hope for in her future was to be someone’s governess or a servant or take up a trade. She wasn’t at all happy about her new lot in life and she blamed Ash for it all. So she’s posing as her father’s nurse so that she could collect information about the new heir. She wasn’t expecting to find out all of his deep dark secrets but most of all, she wasn’t expecting to feel the things that she’s feeling for him and she’s not at all sure what to do. Either way she goes, she’ll betray someone. Will it be her brothers or the man that she’s grown to love?

Now it’s no secret that I’m not a fan of big secrets but Milan did a great job of making me fall in love with this story anyway. I fell head over heels in love with Ash Turner and I thought that when Margaret thawed, she became such a great woman. She was so different from her family and I thought she was great for it. I loved seeing her fall slowly in love with Ash. I loved that she understood Ash as no one else did and loved him anyway.

This book is a wonderful historical romance about two people who are supposed to hate each other but found out that they didn’t. It’s about two people finding love when they weren’t expecting it and I enjoyed every minute of reading this one.

Grade: 4.5 out of 5

This book is available from HQN. You can buy it here.

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