Rating: 3.5 stars
Thank you to Avon and NetGalley for this ARC. It has not influenced my opinions in any way. This book is on sale now.
Reina Martin is the illegitimate daughter of a Spanish dancer and a prominent banker. She's an intelligent child and understands early on that her father has another, official family, while Reina and her mother have to be kept secret. Her mother is determined that Reina will have opportunities she never got, and makes sure to hire her tutors who work at the nearby boys' school. As an adult, Reina successfully gets a law degree, but is prevented from working as a lawyer. She becomes the protegee of wealthy banker William Farlow, and wants to use her financial acumen to open a bank for women, since they are constantly discriminated against at other banks.
John Pembroke is a police detective from Manchester, who is sent on an undercover mission in Reina's household. London Police suspect William Farlow of embezzling large amounts of his clients' money, and they are uncertain if Reina is one of his accomplices, or whether she's one of his pawns. The fact that most of Reina's household is staffed by paroled criminals doesn't exactly make her seem less complicit in Farlow's corruption. Pembroke has a history of domestic service and is therefore the perfect man to send to pretend to be a paroled criminal wanting the position as butler in her household.
Pembroke is both charmed and baffled by Reina, clearly a deeply intelligent and very financially savvy woman, who has absolutely no idea how to get the disparate band of individuals in her household to work together and behave appropriately as servants. The only one who actually knows how to do her job is the cook, who is Reina's childhood friend. It becomes very clear almost immediately that neither of these former inmates would be good recruits in any kind of criminal conspiracy. However, it's also very obvious that when the police eventually show up for a routine inspection of the various parolees, Reina's servants will be sent back to prison immediately.
Pembroke tries to keep a professional distance from Reina, their growing relationship complicated both by their difference in social standing and the fact that Pembroke is there to spy on her, and as a result, has to constantly lie to her. The more time he spends with her, and her household of chaotic misfits, the harder he finds it to be objective.
As far as I can tell, this is Lisa Kleypas' first romance novel since Devil in Disguise, the final book in her Ravenels series. This book also reads more like a standard historical fiction novel than a romance. Yes, there is a strong attraction between Pembroke and Reina, and so much yearning, but they barely even kiss until the final quarter of the book. There is also a lot of focus on the various members of Reina's household, the found family vibe is much stronger than the romantic subplot. I enjoyed it, and was very happy to be granted an ARC, I just struggle with writing reviews in a timely manner these days.
One benefit of having waited to publish my review is that I came across some news online about the book earlier this week. John Pembroke is described as being very dark, and not fitting in where he grew up in Wales, but very little attention is given to his father. In the notes at the back, where Kleypas lists all of her various historical inspiration for the book (there was indeed a woman who founded an all women's bank in Victorian Era England), she mentions the first black police officer in England. Due to the various, rather vague physical descriptions of Pembroke, and this historical tidbit, Kleypas was asked point blank at a signing whether Pembroke was supposed to be a man of colour. She confirmed that yes, Pembroke is supposed to have been mixed race, with a black father and a Welsh mother. However, the publishing company asked her to take out some of the mentions of John's ethnicity. I think it's a great shame, because while there are exceptions, there is still very little representation for people of colour in historical romances, and a kind, clever, competent hero with biracial heritage in a novel by one of the acknowledged queens of historical romance would have been great.
So I can't deny that I'm a bit disappointed that Ms. Kleypas chose to omit details that would have made it clear to the reader that some of the struggles Pembroke has faced over the course of his life are not just because he comes from a poor, working-class background, but because of his obvious racial difference from the majority of people around him in Wales (and later Manchester and London). It would also explain some of John's convictions that his and Reina's union would be difficult, since despite her Spanish mother, she is still clearly a white woman.
While I enjoyed reading the book, we find out very little of how Reina went from being a strong-willed girl who realised her father wasn't a very principled man, to the financial genius she is presented as as an adult. She mentions a bit about studying law, but there is a lot of tell and not enough show here. It also seems super convenient that every single paroled convict she took into her household just needed patience, love and understanding to eventually become a perfectly good servant. This felt a bit like a fairytale vibe to it.
Not Kleypas' worst book, by any means, but also not exactly a thrilling return to form.
Crossposted on Cannonball Read
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