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| Published April 3rd 2014 by HarperImpulse Add to Goodreads |
I'm very excited to share my review of Jane Lark's The Scandalous Love of a Duke, book three in the Marlow Intrigues. I have read and really loved the first two books, and I was really looking forward to John's story.
I would like to thank the author, Jane Lark for providing me a copy of her novel in exchange for an honest review.
My Rating: ★★★★
The Blurb
Isolated by life and choice, John Harding, the Duke of
Pembroke, sees an angel in a pale mauve dress across a room and is drawn closeras lust grips firm and hard in his stomach.
The wheat-blonde hair escaping her dull dove-grey bonnet andcaressing her neck lures his eyes to a spot he'd like to kiss. She speaks with animation her hands moving. Then as if she senses his gaze the stranger turns and looks at him.
A rush of pain and longing spilled from Katherine's heart into her limbs. It was so long since she'd seen John but her reaction was the same as it had been more than half-a-dozen years before. Sheloved him, secretly, without hope, but a chasm of years and status stood
between them.
Pembroke, sees an angel in a pale mauve dress across a room and is drawn closeras lust grips firm and hard in his stomach.
The wheat-blonde hair escaping her dull dove-grey bonnet andcaressing her neck lures his eyes to a spot he'd like to kiss. She speaks with animation her hands moving. Then as if she senses his gaze the stranger turns and looks at him.
A rush of pain and longing spilled from Katherine's heart into her limbs. It was so long since she'd seen John but her reaction was the same as it had been more than half-a-dozen years before. Sheloved him, secretly, without hope, but a chasm of years and status stood
between them.
♥ My Thoughts♥
Having been swept away by both Edward's and Robert's romances in the first two novels, I was itching to get my hands on this novel. I love the way Ms. Lark writes, crafting her scenes together with beautiful language and poignant emotion, and her characters are all vastly different from one another. John was entirely different than I had anticipated. From what I knew him as a young man in The Passionate Love of a Rake, he seemed to be a thoughtful and sensitive character. I was not prepared to encounter a man who was in a lot of ways, broken and isolated from his family and peers.
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| Jane Lark |
John was especially touching to read, and it was often both frustrating and heartbreaking to read about his thoughts and emotions, so much of them had been bruised by his grandfather, and those bruises had left imprints on his soul that acted like gaping wounds, forcing him to build layers of defense against himself as well as the world. And there was only one person who could break through layers, and that was Katherine.
Oddly, Katherine was very like John, and yet entirely opposite. While John suffered from too much attention focused on him because of his position in society, Katherine suffered from an utter lack of consideration because of the state of her being born out of wedlock, and having a family that did not shield and protect her from the judgement of society. Both these characters suffered due to external circumstances that were connected to their birth. But while John shrouded himself in defenses, Katherine sought to instead to make herself useful and to peel away the layers of John that were the duke to reveal his true self. I found this rather fascinating to read, and the rocky nature of their relationship perfectly captured their insecurities and characters while highlighting that real love can draw us to our better self.
An impressively spun story that depicts emotions and the true nature of love and romance with intelligent beauty.
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