Two of my greatest loves are the revenge drama and the happily ever after. As anyone familiar with the former will know, it’s pretty rare to find it paired with the latter. But in Romancelandia, anything can happen and happily ever afters? They’re a guarantee. And when it’s Mimi Matthews doing the pairing? You can trust that both the revenge plot and the happily ever after will come with all of the drama and romance you could possibly desire.
As the daughter of a wealthy squire and the illegitimate son of a scullery maid, young Margaret Honeywell and Nicholas Seaton should never have been friends, let alone sweethearts. When circumstances drive Nicholas away, he promises he’ll come back someday. And so Margaret waits… and waits… until all hope is gone and she realizes she must marry or lose her beloved home. Enter Viscount St. Clare. He’s aristocratic and educated, he’s the acknowledged heir of an earl — in short, he’s everything Nicholas wasn’t. Yet despite the evidence before her, Margaret’s heart knows him. As the web of old secrets and enemies pulls tighter around them, will Margaret and St. Clare choose duty and deny their hearts or will they risk everything to be together?
Our protagonists are extremely appealing, and every step of the way, I was rooting for them to achieve their individual goals and find a way to be together, which looked more and more unlikely as the story went on. But no matter how complicated it became, I trusted them to figure it out, for St. Clare to resolve the conflict between the man he is and the boy he was and, honestly, for Margaret’s clear-sighted determination to save the day. I was rewarded with a wonderfully dramatic plot and climax and a romance so swoonworthy I was ruined for your average OTP.
And as always with Matthews, I was also rewarded for being up on my classics, which helped me guess where the plot was going. If you haven’t read the books Matthews has been reading, you’ll still have a great time, and from the assurance of the writing, you’ll still recognize you’re in good hands. But it’s always fun to be in on the lore and recognize familiar plot devices and literary references.
If you’re a fan of the revenge genre, or even just of a well-told romance with plenty of drama, I can’t recommend Gentleman Jim enough. And if you’re anything like me, you’ll be standing and cheering for the big finale!
Gentleman Jim is the second in Matthews’s Somerset Stories series, and while the first two books can be read separately, if you like this, you’ll want to read The Work of Art, too. Especially so you can be ready for the third book, Return to Satterthwaite Court, which releases in two days and draws heavily on both previous books. Be on the lookout for my review of book three!
–b
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