Another winner from Putney. Characters are competent in various skills, the women help do the saving. Enjoyable from the first page through the end.

Lady Julia Raines had her reasons for living under an assumed name, Mrs. Bancroft, and acting as the village midwife. It had been years since she had run away, faked her death, and assumed a new identity--enough years that she was feeling quite safe in her village by the sea. Then three men knocked at her door and dragged her away to face the consequences of her past.

Major Alexander Randall was content with his solitary soldier’s life when he found himself in the sticky situation of becoming his much-despised uncle’s heir. On his way to begrudgingly accept his uncle’s mandate, Alex happens upon the lovely Julia in her desperate plight. After rescuing her from her attackers, Alex concludes that to truly protect Julia he must marry her.

Putney’s well-developed characters and use of humor keep this book entertaining and fresh. Alex and Julia must both deal with dark issues from their past and learn how to trust. The villains of the story, Julia’s first husband and Alex’s uncle, are more than just one-dimensional “evil” characters, and Alex himself is more than just an alpha male hero. The love story is sweet and tender and readers will find themselves cheering for Julia and Alex.

*This book is the second in the Lost Lords series, but a reader can enjoy it without having read the first. The first book is Loving a Lost Lord.

Unlike other romances that have a completely ridiculous conflict to drive the hero and heroine apart, this book featured a complete lack of conflict. Both of the characters wanted to be together and the marriage occurred very early in the book. There wasn't much to discover about the characters as the story unfolded and it made it a little disappointing.

Better than the first one in the series, but still pushed up against the edges of my suspension of disbelief capacity.

As noted in my review of the first book, I got this in a five-book packet on Kindle sale and moved on to this book after finishing the first one. I liked the story in this one better, though it relied even more heavily on the "not really saying what they mean" trope than the first, which annoys me. I really liked the characters, however, especially the heroine who had developed a second career of being a capable midwife and healer out in the remote wilds of Cumberland.

This book does have some triggers, including abuse, rape, mutilation, and truly nasty people. Might not be the best selection if any of those are issues for you, especially as the heroine got over her "issues" a little more quickly than is probably realistic. However, I enjoyed the story in spite of that, and it kept me engrossed until the end.

Yep it's official I'm hooked on this series. So far I'm just loving these Lost Lords. Randall was a great character in the first novel as was Julia, I really enjoyed getting to read their story. Learning about Julia's secretive past was of course greatly anticipated and this didn't disappoint.

So after the mild antagonism between these two in the first book of course they were going to be the subjects of the second. I did just adore Randall as the knight in shinning armor though. He's such a gentleman and yet his military life has shaped him into a man of honor and integrity with a backbone of steel. He has such a wonderful need to help the damsel in distress. For all that she's a damsel, and in distress, Julia to slightly mis-quote Disney's Hercules "She can handle it."



Julia has had a ton of strength to get herself out of the awful situation she was in, abused by her first husband, to escape and fake her own death while finding a career for herself. She's learned plenty to become the competent midwife she is now thought to be. I love that Randall respects that about her and doesn't try to curtail the natural power she's found for herself.

I liked how the relationship between these two developed. The marriage was conceived under harsh circumstances and the questionable nature of that came back up later. Things weren't too easy for them. They had to learn about each other and work past their issues to get to a point where trust was eternal and each could be comfortable that the other wanted the same things from them. Sure some things were undoubtedly going to go the way neither of them suspected

Spoiler

Was there really ever any doubt that Julia's fears about being barren were going to be unfounded?

but I liked that both of them faced their fears and moved forward.

I loved reading this story and will definitely be moving on to see what Ms. Putney has in hand for the next of her Lost Lords!

This started out way more intriguing than the first entry in the series ("Loving a Lost Lord"): an older widow as heroine (great), and she's not a fancy lady but a village midwife (even better), and she can't have children (wow!), and she was abused by her first husband and has lingering PTSD-esque issues about sex (ok... not what I anticipated but could be interesting). It had all the makings of a story that wouldn't retread the classic romance novel trajectory of bodice-ripping passion followed by dream wedding followed by babies and blissful domesticity.

Unfortunately the plot quickly hopped right back on the rails and went exactly where you'd expect it to.

Spoiler

She's secretly a duchess! The first time they have sex she overcomes her trauma! She's disowned by all the guys we're supposed to hate and heartily supported by everyone else! The people hunting her down have one last crack at her but the hero saves her! And lo and behold, she gets pregnant at the end, because no relationship can be truly fulfilling unless it produces babies. ARGH.

Had it at least ended the way I hoped it would

Spoiler

(Julia and Randall adopt Branford's bastard and settle into a life as an unconventional but loving little family of 3)

, I was prepared to overcome the drabness of the rest of the plot and give this 3 stars. Alas and BOO-URNS.

Spoiler

Is anyone out there writing romance novels for women who consider "surprise, you're pregnant!" a fine piece of horror writing?

I went to the library and got a couple more Putney and Nora Roberts because out of the recent crap books I've read, they were the least crappy.

This is the second in a series and I suspect there is back story that would have helped flesh out the "romance" some. It was not horrible and I suspect if you like romance that it would be a decent read.

While I liked Putney's character and most of the plot, the memories of horrific acts of violence that the heroine deals with in just about every love scene detract from the Victorian romance genre.

Better than book #1 in series. Had to laugh though because both hedgehog metaphors caught me up short. A "furious, snarling hedgehog"? A " rabid hedgehog"? I must have been indoctrinated by Beatrix Potter too thoroughly because I just laughed at these phrases.