Publisher: Avon, Harper Collins

Rowena’s review of In Pursuit of Eliza Cynster by Stephanie Laurens.

Hero: Jeremy Carling
Heroine: Eliza Cynster

The pleasure of your company is requested at the wedding of Miss Eliza Cynster . . . but not until she’s rescued from a daring abduction by the most unexpected of heroes!

Brazenly kidnapped from her sister Heather’s engagement ball, Eliza Cynster is spirited north to Edinburgh. Desperate and deter-mined to escape, she seizes upon the first possible champion who happens along— gentleman scholar Jeremy Carling.

Villains and rescues are a far cry from Jeremy’s expertise, yet he cannot abandon a damsel in distress. But danger lurks and hurdles abound in their race to escape the mysterious laird, until a final confrontation on a windswept cliff reveals what their future life could hold—if both are bold enough to seize and own the unexpected love they now share.

This is the book that follows Viscount Breckenridge to the Rescue and at the end of that book, Heather’s sister Eliza is snatched from her engagement ball. This book follows what happens after that. While Heather and Breckenridge’s story spent most of the book trying to figure who was behind the kidnapping and what the kidnapper wanted with the Cynster girls, Eliza’s book spent more time dealing with her actual escape from her captors. Other than that, the books were a great deal alike in storyline.

Eliza catches the eye of Jeremy Carling and it was Jeremy who came through and rescued her and it was at times entertaining to watch these two grow closer and closer. I enjoyed the romance that popped up between these two but if I’m being honest, I’m not sure how many more books by Stephanie Laurens I can read because she’s starting to remind me of Diana Gabaldon with her three million words to describe every minute detail of what’s going on. I don’t need to read about them checking the map at every turn of the corner. I’m telling you now like I told you when I read Outlander. This book could have been just as good without so many hot damn words. They could have chopped this book in half and I think we still would have gotten a fabulous story about two people falling in love. It was just a struggle to read through every single word in this book because there were so freaking many.

My favorite thing about this book was the hero. Jeremy Carling is one of those bookish nerdy heroes that I just absolutely adored. I thought the way that he came to Eliza’s rescue despite not being a soldier or warrior was so cute and the protective way he became over her had me sighing all over the place. His character really came to life over the course of this book and I wish more words were spent describing him than on the places they were at and stuff like that.

I liked Eliza better than I liked Heather but there were times when I wanted to give her a swift kick in the arse. Must be that Cynster blood running through her. I thought that the way that Eliza and Jeremy came together, the way that they fell in love was totally believable and it felt real. I enjoyed being a part of their journey even if I wish the journey was cut a little short.

Overall, this is a good addition to the series and I’m not mad that I read it. It’s going to be interesting to see where this all ends because McKinsey is running out of Cynster girls to kidnap to keep his crazy psycho Mom at bay. I’m enjoying catching the little glimpses of him and even though I’m a little wary from all the words I’ll have to read in the next book, I think I’m going to read it just so that I can finish this out.

Grade: 3 out of 5

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

Publisher: Avon, Harper Collins

Hero: Jonas Tallant
Heroine: Emily Beauregard
Grade: 3 out of 5

Danger, desire, and adventure collide in this newest tale featuring the bold and daring Cynster family… The passionate and daring Cynster clan returns to delight readers, as Jonas Tallant, Lucifer Cynster’s brother in law, happily leaves the ballrooms of London and returns to Devon to manager his family estate. There, his life becomes intertwined with that of beautiful, headstrong, Emily Beauregard. Orphaned and near penniless, Emily is determined to find her family’s lost treasure that will ensure her and her sibling’s futures. But as she draws closer to finding it, the greater the danger grows to her, her family, and to the treasure that she’s discovered in Jonas’ arms.

I haven’t read a Cynster novel since Scandal’s story and I never really thought I’d ever be interested in reading another Cynster novel until I read a few pages of this book. The beginning of this story started out interesting. I enjoyed the first glimpse of the relationship that was to come between Jonas and Em. I loved how she just bombarded him in her interview for the position of Innkeeper and I immediately knew that these two were going to be cute and for the most part, I was right.

I enjoyed reading the chemistry sizzling between these two but for a good chunk of the book, I kept wanting something to happen between these two. I wanted Jonas to demand the truth from Em or I wanted Em to get the hell on with her search for the family treasure. It seemed to me that I kept waiting for something to happen and the more pages I turned and still had those few stolen kisses and Jonas staring at Em from across the now crowded Inn, waiting her out made me want to shake them both and scream at them, “GET ON WITH IT ALREADY!”

You see, the story goes like this: Jonas Tallant is Lucifer’s brother-in-law. Lucifer is the Cynster and that’s the connection to the Cynster family. Jonas has become tired of the London fast life and he wants to come home and run the family estate in Devon. So he’s back at home in the country and he running things and the chore that he needs to fix is the chore of finding a new Innkeeper to breathe some life back into his family’s Inn.

Enter the heroine. Emily Beauregard, who is the oldest in her family with four siblings. After their parents died, their family got shipped off to an uncle that abused them (emotionally) and used them as his servants (free of charge of course) and when Em was finally of age to legally take custody of her siblings, they steal off in the middle of the night on a family adventure to find the family treasure. They need to go back to the place where their family is from, Colyton and they need to figure out where the treasure is exactly.

The story revolves around the treasure, Em and her family and then Em and Jonas’s budding relationship.

Jonas was a good hero. He was one of those sexy, I want to jump your bones kind of historical heroes that I like and I loved watching him fall in love with Emily. I loved the little scenes between these two, where we see them bickering and everything. It was cute. There were times in the story where I wanted to throttle both Jonas and Em but for the most part, I enjoyed their pairing. I enjoyed them two together and Jonas away from Em was pretty hot damn sexy and I really enjoyed getting to know him.

Em was a great heroine as well. The way that she took care of her brother and sisters was commendable and it was a huge part of the reason why I liked her. She was one of those heroines that got the job done, she did what she had to do and she took more things on her shoulder than she should have but she did it all in the name of love. I was glad when Jonas finally stepped in and started helping her because she needed some damn help.

The other characters in this story like Lucifer and Phyllida, Issy, Henry and the twins were all great additions to a great cast of characters and my only complaint with this book was the dragging in the middle of the story and in the beginning of Jonas and Em’s relationship. That waiting for something to happen and then still waiting 50 pages later slowed my enjoyment of this book and had me sifting through the pages a time or two but I’m glad that I stuck with this story because it ended up being a pretty decent read.

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