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3.86 AVERAGE
3.86 AVERAGE
A deeply satisfying, thoroughly enjoyable entry in the series. Two characters who have been hanging around the fringe of the story, the lovable Lady Phoebe and slightly complicated Captain Trevillion, finally get their own story and it was worth the wait. Phoebe is blind and her overprotective older brother has hired Trevillion to watch over her. Trevillion is already most of the way in love with her when the book begins, but Phoebe sees him as one more example of the constraints she chafes against. Oh, the angst! The other problem, of course, is that there are real kidnapping attempts afoot, and Trevillion has to think pretty far outside of the box to keep Phoebe safe. And then there was only one bed.
Phoebe's blindness is handled well in this book. She does live in a society that is even less disability-friendly than our current era, and there are real barriers to the independence she desires. At the same time she is also stubborn and not afraid to advocate for herself, and comes up with her own creative solutions—for example, since she recognizes most people by scent, she has one made up for Trevillion that won't hurt his manly male masculinity so he feels comfortable wearing it and she can know when he's around. Phoebe is also the kind of character who would have been relegated to secondary status in another book: she's described as short and plump, she's cheerful and friendly and reasonably conventional and always supportive of her friends. That she gets to be her own heroine is another reason to love this book.
Phoebe's blindness is handled well in this book. She does live in a society that is even less disability-friendly than our current era, and there are real barriers to the independence she desires. At the same time she is also stubborn and not afraid to advocate for herself, and comes up with her own creative solutions—for example, since she recognizes most people by scent, she has one made up for Trevillion that won't hurt his manly male masculinity so he feels comfortable wearing it and she can know when he's around. Phoebe is also the kind of character who would have been relegated to secondary status in another book: she's described as short and plump, she's cheerful and friendly and reasonably conventional and always supportive of her friends. That she gets to be her own heroine is another reason to love this book.
Voilà un huitième tome qui me réconcilie avec cette série d'Elizabeth Hoyt, je m'étais lassée au 4e (ou 5e) tome et n'avait plus tenté de les lire depuis. Mais voilà, ce tome j'en ai entendu beaucoup de bien et surtout je souhaitais retrouver le personnage de Phoebe.
Si j'ai passé un excellent moment, si les personnages sont vraiment très bien traités, l'histoire entrainante et l'écriture au rendez-vous, je trouve quand même qu'on s'éliogne des débuts de Maiden Lane et de son ambiance, c'est dommage et confirme ce que je pensais avant, cette série est trop longue.
Mais sinon, ce Garde du coeur est un excellent roman à lire même si vous n'avez pas lu les tomes précédents !
Si j'ai passé un excellent moment, si les personnages sont vraiment très bien traités, l'histoire entrainante et l'écriture au rendez-vous, je trouve quand même qu'on s'éliogne des débuts de Maiden Lane et de son ambiance, c'est dommage et confirme ce que je pensais avant, cette série est trop longue.
Mais sinon, ce Garde du coeur est un excellent roman à lire même si vous n'avez pas lu les tomes précédents !
adventurous
funny
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Content Warnings
Minor: Sexual assault
adventurous
emotional
lighthearted
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
| Chapter One | 19/01/2021 11:42:32
and hold her until you agreed to sell the land… or worse, force her to marry his son…”
“Maywood’s heir is married already,” Wakefield growled.
Craven shook his head. “The boy’s marriage was to a lady of the Catholic persuasion and, as I understand it, not recognized by the Church of England. Thus Maywood has declared
Say whaaaat?
| Chapter Three | 20/01/2021 09:36:41
Jean-Marie’s skin was a glossy black,
No it wasnt
| Chapter Three | 20/01/2021 09:54:58
enormous blackamoor
At least they havent been erased i guess
| Chapter Four | 20/01/2021 10:31:33
“Your coat, if you please, Reed,” Trevillion ordered.
“Oh no,” Lady Phoebe began, but Reed had already stripped off the coat to hold it over her head.
“This is his job, my lady,” Trevillion said. He gave an approving
Yep utterly ridiculous
| Chapter Four | 20/01/2021 10:40:05
heard a sharp inhalation from someone, but she couldn’t stop. She loved her brother—he was years older than she and had always cared for and protected her, but she simply couldn’t stand this anymore. The frustration, the fear, and the anger were all frothing up, steaming over, burning everything in their path. She stood, knocking something off the table. China smashed on the floor. “She’s my friend, not yours, Maximus, and I deserve friends. I deserve to run and trip and fall without having my every move plotted and planned and… and tied down so that I never, ever risk living. I’ve never—”
“Phoebe, you know that—”
“Don’t interrupt me!” Her screamed words were loud and terrible and hurt her throat. “I never even had a damned season. No new gowns, no new friends, no new beaux. You wouldn’t let me. You keep me hidden and swathed like an elderly aunt with dementia. It’s a wonder I haven’t gone insane in the last several years.” She laughed, wild and unseemly, bile pouring from her mouth. “I can’t breathe, do you understand me? You can’t do this to me anymore, Maximus, you simply can’t! I loathe what you’ve made me into and, Maximus, soon—very soon—I’ll loathe you, too.”
Thank god she is human
| Chapter Five | 20/01/2021 10:44:54
She couldn’t see the movement, but she must’ve realized that he wasn’t going to answer that. “But you didn’t want to join the dragoons?”
“No.”
“How strange,” she breathed. “I always had the notion that you loved being a soldier.”
“I did, but not at first.” He remembered that wild despair. His firm resolve to take the only action left to him. “I never wanted to be a soldier. It was a cruel blow, but in the end I did learn to like my service.”
She leaned back against the bench. “There were the horses. I would think that would help.”
He peered at her, but the darkness thwarted his attempt to see her face. How had she known that he loved horses? “They did,” he said slowly. “That and the men. They came from all over England, but we found a common ground in fighting the iniquities of St Giles.”
“Do you miss it?”
“Yes.” He closed his eyes and inhaled the scent of roses and things lost. But that was maudlin. He wasn’t a man to spend his life looking backward. “I can still ride, though. Despite the leg. Despite the pain. For that I am grateful.”
She exhaled. “And I can still garden. Despite the loss of my sight. Should I be grateful for that?”
He knew he should step carefully, but perhaps that was part of the problem: others treated her with kid gloves. Didn’t give her the respect of adulthood. “Yes, I think you should be grateful for whatever you can still do. For whatever new things you might find you can do.”
“I am grateful,” she admitted. “But I want more. So much more.”
“Your sight.”
“No.” Her voice was loud with her vehemence. “I know I will never regain my sight. There’s no use endlessly pining for it—I already spent years doing that. Maximus brought in doctors from all over Europe and beyond. I was dosed with the most hideous potions, had stinging drops placed in my eyes, took baths in freezing water and hot concoctions, and each time I thought: maybe this time. Maybe my sight will return. Maybe just a little—a little, please God, I would be content with a little. Only it never did. Not even a little.”
He swallowed, his muscles tensing as if he could rescue her from torture long past. “And now?”
“Now,” she said, her voice sweet, seductive, mingling with the scent of the roses. “Now I want to live, James. I want to ride a horse again. I want to go where I will. I want to meet a gentleman and be courted and marry and have children—lots of children. Shouldn’t I be allowed that at least?”
He remembered MacLeish from that afternoon. Handsome, the white of his teeth flashing as he’d grinned, so bright with his red hair clubbed back. Lady Phoebe had been smiling when Trevillion had come to fetch her.
MacLeish was perfect for her.
“Yes,” he said, his voice hoarse, his chest aching as if he’d taken a shot to the heart. “Yes,
Wonderful
| Chapter Five | 20/01/2021 10:47:36
thought struck her and she bit her lip. “Unless you’re one of those gentlemen who prefer the company of other gentlemen.”
There was a short, tense silence.
Really, come to think of it, she’d never heard Captain Trevillion pay attention to any lady—other than herself, of course.
“No, my lady,” he bit out, sounding exasperated. “I am not such a gentleman.”
Wondrous the relief she felt, quite out of all proportion to the information. Well, anyone would, surely? The life of a gentleman who preferred other gentlemen was not always an easy one. Obviously that was her main concern. As a friend—
How very enlightened
| Chapter Seven | 20/01/2021 23:30:39
. The Duke of Montgomery was a beautiful man with nearly feminine features—a narrow nose, high cheekbones, and a voluptuous mouth. He stood slightly shorter than Trevillion and wore his curling golden-blond hair unpowdered and clubbed back. He looked like a frivolous dandy, but Trevillion didn’t make the mistake of venturing within striking distance of that sword.
Do i sense some stereotyping of gay men and placing them as the villain?
| Chapter Ten | 21/01/2021 10:16:45
Nodding to herself, she untied her bonnet. There was a chair by the washstand and she laid the bonnet there. Fortunately the clothes provided by Mrs. Wooster were a working woman’s apparel—things, unlike her own, that she could take off and put back on without a lady’s maid. She had a pang at the thought of Powers. Where was the girl now? Maximus would’ve let her go without reference at the very least. Phoebe shook her head. She didn’t think Powers had hated her—although it was always hard to tell what a good servant truly felt about their master or mistress. But to risk a plum situation as a duke’s sister’s lady’s maid, Powers must’ve been quite desperate. Phoebe made a vow to herself to inquire after Powers once she returned to London, and find out if she needed help.
How nice of her
| Chapter Ten | 21/01/2021 10:22:03
He cleared his throat again, trying to remember his argument. “Yes, but—”
“You’ve got chest hair!” she exclaimed, as if discovering he had wings. “How very strange that must be. Does it get tangled in your shirts?”
Hahaha
| Chapter Ten | 21/01/2021 10:27:10
A footman escorted her out of the sitting room and down the stairs. Jean-Marie was waiting for her in the front hallway. He turned from inspecting a rather gaudy statuette of a Moorish boy in turban, loincloth, and earrings. The statuette was made of some black marble and the earrings, eyes, and lips were gilded.
“Ma’am.” Jean-Marie inclined his head as she made the hallway. He held the front door open for her. “Do you think I should wear gold earrings?”
“I think,” Eve said as they walked to her carriage, “that Tess would never speak to me again if I said yes.”
“Hm,” Jean-Marie murmured as he opened the carriage door and set the step.
Tess was Jean-Marie’s wife and Eve’s very talented cook. For the sake of her stomach she liked to keep Tess happy.
Interessting. Are they whole people? The statue sounds dreadful
| Chapter Twelve | 21/01/2021 10:58:34
Agnes’s mother was weak in the head.
Yep guessed something wasnt right immeiately. That is james story all right
| Chapter Thirteen | 21/01/2021 11:15:17
She looked all of twelve.
He was a lecherous bastard, plain and simple, but he could no longer deny the pull she exerted on him just by breathing.
Yep gotta wonder why???
| Chapter Fourteen | 21/01/2021 11:44:58
He walked to the water’s edge and wet his handkerchief to wipe her thighs. There was a little blood there—just a smear showing pink on the white of his linen—and he knew he should feel shame for despoiling her, his charge.
All he felt was pride. He’d meant what he’d told
Arghhh
| Chapter Fifteen | 21/01/2021 12:02:09
But Faire shook his head. “Look here, Trevillion. I’ve all but lost Jeffrey already. He only returned home to collect a few items of sentimental value. He’s recently married and bought a plantation in the West Indies with his wife’s dowry. He intends to sail there at the end of the week. I doubt he’ll ever set foot in England again. The West Indies are half a world away. Should he have a family there I may never see them. But he has a daughter here still.”
Trevillion stiffened. “Your son has no right to Agnes. He’s never even acknowledged her as his.”
Faire bowed his head. “He has no right and I have no right. I know that. There’s no reason at all you and your father should let me see her, but I’m asking anyway.”
“Why?”
Faire looked up at that. “She’s my blood… and I love her.”
So many things
| Chapter Seventeen | 21/01/2021 12:23:35
Then she heard his voice, low and intimate. “You look like a princess, did you know? I’m surprised she had the bravery to say anything at all to you. But then I don’t think she actually looked at you. Anyone who did would know what you are: a petite Amazon princess.”
Her lips twitched at his hyperbole, sweet though it was. “I think you might be biased.”
“No.” His reply was sure. “When you walk into a room, every man looks at you and it’s not because you’re blind. They see sweetness. They see a laughing face and a figure that a man just wants to touch.”
Oh, she was blushing now!
Ahhh
Entertaining, but the main couple went from bickering to being madly in love with unseemly haste.
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Hoyt does amazing work with bananas plots and delicious tropes. This bodyguard romance set in the 1740s is no exception! Perfect if you like grumpy/sunshine and agree that sometimes violence really is the answer.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content
Moderate: Sexual assault, Injury/Injury detail
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
it dragged a bit with ALL the kidnappings
emotional
lighthearted
medium-paced
I really like this author and this series. In this installment, Lady Phoebe Batten, the sister of the Duke of Wakefield, is blind and frustrated that her brother has hired former Dragoon Captain James Trevillion to be her bodyguard. Several attempts are made to kidnap Phoebe and she begins to appreciate Trevillion