adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: No

The Lord John books are just not as interesting read as the Outlander books! However, they do fill in some gaps on Lord John! This one was harder to read than the first due to the war setting.

It's a mark of how appealing a character John Grey is that I have continued with this series. I liked this one better than "...The Private Matter" and the Lord John novellas I've read. (NB. I wish, on behalf of all of us OCD readers, that Diana had posted Lord John's chronology somewhere more obtrusive than in the midst of "...Hand of Devils;" now that I'm back to chronological order, the series makes more sense to me.) Still, Lord John himself, and his complex and highly-fraught relationships with other characters, are much more interesting than the Byzantine plots of the books -- DG's storyboards must look like the garage in "A Beautiful Mind." I wish she had limited herself to fewer, or simpler, plots and pursued the relationships in more depth: the scenes between Lord John and Hal; their mother; Harry Quarry; Percy; and especially Jamie Fraser are far richer than the "mystery" that is purportedly the heart of the novel. But I'll keep going!

Also: After two and a half books, Tom Byrd is really starting to annoy me. Fergus Fraser he ain't.
adventurous emotional sad medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Not as good as any of the Outlander books, IMO, but far far better than the first installment in this series, Lord John and the Private Matter. Excellent straight historical fiction, less of a "chick book" (the female characters are very much accessories) than Outlander, but also no sci-fi elements. Well plotted and interesting -- the characters are very well drawn.

The back of Lord John and the Brotherhood of the Blade goes into detail about the plot: the death of Lord John's father was surrounded in scandal and secrecy, and one of those secrets has resurfaced, forcing the family to confront the past. This plot drives most of the story's action, but the back of the book relegates the /emotional/ drive of the story to a mere few words, "a love affair with potentially disastrous consequences."

This "love affair" is Lord John's relationship with his soon-to-be step-brother Percy Wainwright. In the mid 1700s (a hundred years after another gay-in-the-English-military novel, As Meat Loves Salt), being a sodomite and a pederast in the military is an offense punishable by death. Their affair is steamy and dangerous, and has consequences that are somewhat predictable but no less gut-wrenching.

Perhaps the back of the book glosses over the homosexual aspect of the story (and by "aspect" I mean it colors almost every single one of Lord John's actions throughout the book) to not turn away readers who might be put off by the gay angle or those strange women who are so appalled by Lord John's "obsession" with Jamie Fraser that their vehement opposition to their friendship exposes their own unhealthy obsession with a fictional character. Don't worry, ladies, the big bad gay isn't going to steal your fake boyfriend.

Back to the point, Brotherhood intersects with events in Voyager, but the Jamie Fraser connection feels like out-of-place fanservice. The Helwater sections, in which Lord John visits and pines over Fraser, break up the otherwise smooth flow of the novel. The "mystery" surrounding Lord John's father is complicated, but minimally intriguing, and is resolved by a series of fortunate coincidences without any direct involvement by Lord John itself. The story is at its strongest when focused on the relationship the publishers tries to ignore. This is an important book, showing just how dangerous it once was to be gay. It shows how far society has come, and its parallels to today show how far we still have to go.

This series shares the author's meticulous research and attention to historical detail with the Outlander series. However, in my opinion, that's where the similarities end. I like this series so far as it gives a really interesting slice of life of London in the 1750s and fills in the "missing years" of the Outlander series. I don't think every Outlander fan will like this series unless one is generally a fan of historic fiction.
For whatever reason, I really like Lord John Grey! He's so clever and in my mind's eye, attractive (I always visualize an Owen Wilson-type). Other reviewers have commented that the sexual scenes between Lord John and his lover in this book could be offensive to homophobes. Let me preface my next remark by saying that the sexual scenes between Jamie and Claire in the Outlander series, although descriptive, were never offensive to me. In this book, the scenes were way too descriptive, way more descriptive than those in OUtlander, and if they were between a man and woman, I would say the same thing. So...I'm not a homophobe - if I were, I wouldn't be reading a series that features a homosexual main character!
emotional mysterious slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: No
adventurous dark emotional mysterious medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: No

I liked it, but was a little confused about what type of story was being told. Unlike the first Lord Johne the mystery aspect seemed like less of a driving factor. I feel like Lord John in these books is almost a different character than Lord John in Outlander because some of the things he says and does are so out of character. However I do like the history and the brief glimpses of Jamie. It was a slow start but once I got into it I read it relatively quickly. I really want more outlander books.