Not a Gentleman by Loreen Augeri
September 07, 2017
Not a Gentleman by Loreen Augeri
Published August 25th, 2017, The Wild Rose Press, 254 pages
"When Juliana Stevenson’s father dies under suspicious circumstances, her greedy uncle betroths her and her sister to vile men for his profit. They refuse to be part of his plan and flee, but her uncle hires an arrogant, demanding man to bring them back.
Needing money to care for his brother and sister and repair a manor in disrepair, Nicholas Blackstone agrees to find the women. He captures Juliana but not her sister and imprisons her in his manor until he can discover the whereabouts of her sibling.
Juliana’s body calls to Nicholas, but she can never be his — her life is already mapped out. Can they fight the passion pulling them together while her father's killer stalks them?"
This was an interesting read! I loved who both Juliana and Nicholas became towards the end of the novel, after the rocky start. I say rocky because the first chunk of the book is literally just Juliana finding annoying ways to run away from Nicholas, over and over again. At first it was important to outline Juliana as a headstrong, stubborn girl with an intense desire to protect and watch over her younger, 18 year old sister Emily. Then it just got repetitive. Thankfully once we arrived at Blackstone Manor things picked back up and started to develop again.
What I believe Loreen Augeri really excelled at in this novel was her action writing. Those parts were well-written, exciting, and kept me at the edge of my seat! Plus, she used superb imagery, really bringing those intense scenes to life. However, one critique I did have was the lack of "historical" in this historical fiction piece. Besides the high expectations for moral purity and riding horses everywhere, this didn't really give me that feeling of being transported INTO a period in history (the novel is set in 1820's England).
Personally I didn't really find myself liking either Juliana or Nicholas, which is neither here nor there, because overall the mystery and excitement Loreen Augeri infuses into the second half of the novel truly kept me reading until the end.
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