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somewherelostinbooks's review against another edition
3.0
This book was a historical romance with a dash of paranormal mixed in. It’s an interesting genre but I’m still not sure if I’m a fan. Honestly, when I saw madness in the title, I was thinking more like Jennifer Ashley’s The Madness of Lord Ian Mackenzie. However, this is an interesting concept for a historical- paranormal. The book focuses around a society of people with special abilities who work together to protect the sanity of the future king from paranormal objects. However, historically, it implies that the king, or in this cause, the Prince of Wales, has a lot more authority over the nation’s policies than he actually did. I think it would have been more accurate for them to be protecting the Prime Minister.
This book featured the beloved romance trope: courtesan heroine. For the most part, I’m a fan of the trope because it is often used to empower women. But in this case, it defeats the purpose to have her be a courtesan to a secretly gay lord. And I’m not sure why it was necessary for her to give away her daughter when the daughter wasn’t illegitimate. Part of me understands the stigma of a courtesan mother but I’m not sure I like Nora having to give up her child.
For the most part, I liked the relationship between Pierce and Nora. They clicked well together. And I liked that he was a virgin hero, ala Jamie Fraser! (Sorry, I recently had an Outlander girl’s night and the ever gorgeous Jamie Fraser has been on my mind!) I did feel that Pierce fell in love with Nora extremely fast, almost faster than the relationship was progressing. Nora is more cautious about falling in love with him, though she pretty easily accepts his paranormal ability (he can read minds). However, then the book turns on a 180 when the hero does something completely stupid and which could have been easily resolved if he just told his friends where he was going. I’m trying to avoid spoilers but it’s just so annoying when the characters are patently dumb. Anyway, despite not liking the last quarter of the book, it was still an interesting read. I’m debating if I’ll go back and read the first book. I think my hesitance stems from the actual genre of historical-paranormal and not the author’s writing or creation.
The Madness of Lord Westfall Review
This book featured the beloved romance trope: courtesan heroine. For the most part, I’m a fan of the trope because it is often used to empower women. But in this case, it defeats the purpose to have her be a courtesan to a secretly gay lord. And I’m not sure why it was necessary for her to give away her daughter when the daughter wasn’t illegitimate. Part of me understands the stigma of a courtesan mother but I’m not sure I like Nora having to give up her child.
For the most part, I liked the relationship between Pierce and Nora. They clicked well together. And I liked that he was a virgin hero, ala Jamie Fraser! (Sorry, I recently had an Outlander girl’s night and the ever gorgeous Jamie Fraser has been on my mind!) I did feel that Pierce fell in love with Nora extremely fast, almost faster than the relationship was progressing. Nora is more cautious about falling in love with him, though she pretty easily accepts his paranormal ability (he can read minds). However, then the book turns on a 180 when the hero does something completely stupid and which could have been easily resolved if he just told his friends where he was going. I’m trying to avoid spoilers but it’s just so annoying when the characters are patently dumb. Anyway, despite not liking the last quarter of the book, it was still an interesting read. I’m debating if I’ll go back and read the first book. I think my hesitance stems from the actual genre of historical-paranormal and not the author’s writing or creation.
The Madness of Lord Westfall Review
kayedacus's review against another edition
3.0
About 3.5 stars.
I seem to be in the minority of people who enjoyed the first book in the series, The Curse of Lord Stanstead, a bit more than this one. In the first book, both main characters had supernatural powers---she as a fire mage, he as someone who can psychically implant thoughts in and influence others' minds . . . and who, if he gets close to someone, can dream about them (nightmare) and then tragically see that dream come to horrific reality.
In this second book, only the hero, Pierce, has a supernatural ability---to "hear" the thoughts of others. Apparently, he didn't have it his whole life; it started when he was a child and fell from a tree and hit his head. How head trauma could cause a supernatural ability, I have no idea, so this origin of his superability didn't really work for me; but I was able to suspend disbelief. Regardless of how Pierce gained the ability, it was overwhelming and confusing for him as a child and, as an adult and the heir to the Viscount Westfall title (and lands and money and social status), his uncle (his father's brother and therefore next in line after Pierce) had him committed to Bethlehem Hospital---Bedlam.
Having met Pierce in the first book, the idea that he found being around others difficult was already well established. So it was more than a little surprising to find him almost constantly around other people in this book. Yes, he's learned to erect a mental shield against the thoughts of others (thanks to his mentor and founder of the Order of the MUSE, Lord Camden); but I would have found this much more believable had the toll this took on him been given more than just a few passing lines about how exhausting/difficult it was for him to keep this shield up constantly. I guess I subscribe to the Once Upon a Time school of thought when it comes to magic or superpowers---they always come with a price (or, to put it in real-world physics terms, for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction).
The heroine of this book, Honora, is also a bit implausible. And it felt like Marlowe originally started writing her as one type of character (a voracious flirt who's always saying outrageous things, like the other courtesan in this series, Vesta LaMotte) as that's how she appears in her first scene; but this side of her is never seen again. And that Pierce can't read her thoughts the first time he meets her is one of the worst examples in this book of how there seem to be no rules to how superabilities work in the MUSE universe. At other times in the book, he has trouble clarifying the thoughts of others because they're scattered, too fast, or too confusing (compared to trying to catch squirrels by the tail in one scene---yet I think that was actually from Honora's viewpoint when she couldn't settle her own mind). Okay, fine. But to say that he can't read someone's thoughts because they're pretending to be someone else (actors) . . . it doesn't really work. Maybe not being able to filter between the real persona and the fake---or having the real thoughts so deeply buried that he couldn't get to them, okay, maybe.
Anyway . . . Nora (Honora) turns out to be nothing like the way she's introduced in her first scene. In fact, she's pretty boring. Her "secret" is both obvious and not scandalous or dangerous at all. (Boring.) She's not the flamboyant, sensual, free-spirited, outrageous person that she's introduced as in her first scene; instead, she's . . . someone with little personality other than wanting to have sex with Pierce and being slightly concerned that her patron's (Lord Albermarle) secret that he's being blackmailed over doesn't get out. (And even here she manages to be boring.)
In Book 1, both Garrett and Cassandra were "extraordinaires"---and both had superabilities that could not only both help and hurt others but could destroy each other. She had to learn to control her power as a fire mage lest she immolate everyone and everything around her (including Garrett); and if he came to care for her, he could potentially bring harm/death to her by having one of his nightmares-that-come-true about her. They had to work together in order to both control and mitigate each other's destructive potential, and that's what made the story, and the building of the relationship between them, work so much better than in this one.
Conversely, even after Nora learns of Pierce's superability and that he knows of the plot that her patron is involved in (because of the aforesaid blackmail), she remains a passive figure in the intrigue part of this story (the supernatural threat/mystery that the Order of the MUSE is trying to solve), being unwilling to help Pierce figure out a way to get rid of the supernatural item that is to be used for nefarious purposes---even though she knows what it is, where it is, and what it's to be used for and probably had easy access to it the whole time. Instead, Pierce must put himself in both physical and mental peril in order to try to bring a resolution to this part of the storyline. By the time Nora does finally decide to act, it's almost too late, as Pierce has already pretty much worked out just about everything by himself, and her appearance comes almost as a deus ex machina moment in order to bring the crisis moment to a quick/neat solution.
I know I've focused mostly on the negative in this review. I did enjoy reading this book, for the most part. Marlowe is a good writer and tells a great story. She keeps the narrative/plot moving along and only rarely gets mired down inside a character's head to the point that I started skimming---but this was usually only a few paragraphs.
This was enjoyable enough that I'm still really looking forward to reading the next book in the series.
I seem to be in the minority of people who enjoyed the first book in the series, The Curse of Lord Stanstead, a bit more than this one. In the first book, both main characters had supernatural powers---she as a fire mage, he as someone who can psychically implant thoughts in and influence others' minds . . . and who, if he gets close to someone, can dream about them (nightmare) and then tragically see that dream come to horrific reality.
In this second book, only the hero, Pierce, has a supernatural ability---to "hear" the thoughts of others. Apparently, he didn't have it his whole life; it started when he was a child and fell from a tree and hit his head. How head trauma could cause a supernatural ability, I have no idea, so this origin of his superability didn't really work for me; but I was able to suspend disbelief. Regardless of how Pierce gained the ability, it was overwhelming and confusing for him as a child and, as an adult and the heir to the Viscount Westfall title (and lands and money and social status), his uncle (his father's brother and therefore next in line after Pierce) had him committed to Bethlehem Hospital---Bedlam.
Having met Pierce in the first book, the idea that he found being around others difficult was already well established. So it was more than a little surprising to find him almost constantly around other people in this book. Yes, he's learned to erect a mental shield against the thoughts of others (thanks to his mentor and founder of the Order of the MUSE, Lord Camden); but I would have found this much more believable had the toll this took on him been given more than just a few passing lines about how exhausting/difficult it was for him to keep this shield up constantly. I guess I subscribe to the Once Upon a Time school of thought when it comes to magic or superpowers---they always come with a price (or, to put it in real-world physics terms, for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction).
The heroine of this book, Honora, is also a bit implausible. And it felt like Marlowe originally started writing her as one type of character (a voracious flirt who's always saying outrageous things, like the other courtesan in this series, Vesta LaMotte) as that's how she appears in her first scene; but this side of her is never seen again. And that Pierce can't read her thoughts the first time he meets her
Spoiler
and can't immediately tell that she's not the person she's pretending to be, much less not sleeping with her patron,Anyway . . . Nora (Honora) turns out to be nothing like the way she's introduced in her first scene. In fact, she's pretty boring. Her "secret" is both obvious and not scandalous or dangerous at all. (Boring.) She's not the flamboyant, sensual, free-spirited, outrageous person that she's introduced as in her first scene; instead, she's . . . someone with little personality other than wanting to have sex with Pierce and being slightly concerned that her patron's (Lord Albermarle) secret that he's being blackmailed over doesn't get out. (And even here she manages to be boring.)
In Book 1, both Garrett and Cassandra were "extraordinaires"---and both had superabilities that could not only both help and hurt others but could destroy each other. She had to learn to control her power as a fire mage lest she immolate everyone and everything around her (including Garrett); and if he came to care for her, he could potentially bring harm/death to her by having one of his nightmares-that-come-true about her. They had to work together in order to both control and mitigate each other's destructive potential, and that's what made the story, and the building of the relationship between them, work so much better than in this one.
Conversely, even after Nora learns of Pierce's superability and that he knows of the plot that her patron is involved in (because of the aforesaid blackmail), she remains a passive figure in the intrigue part of this story (the supernatural threat/mystery that the Order of the MUSE is trying to solve), being unwilling to help Pierce figure out a way to get rid of the supernatural item that is to be used for nefarious purposes---even though she knows what it is, where it is, and what it's to be used for and probably had easy access to it the whole time. Instead, Pierce must put himself in both physical and mental peril in order to try to bring a resolution to this part of the storyline. By the time Nora does finally decide to act, it's almost too late, as Pierce has already pretty much worked out just about everything by himself, and her appearance comes almost as a deus ex machina moment in order to bring the crisis moment to a quick/neat solution.
Spoiler
And what bothered me the most about this story was its conclusion. In escaping Bedlam, Pierce once again receives a blow to the head. He's out cold for about a day (it was a week when he was a child). When he wakes up, he cannot read anyone's thoughts anymore. I was SO annoyed with this! It's just like the stories in which a character loses their eyesight due to a blow to the head/injury, only to receive another similar injury/blow toward the end and, miracle of miracles, they get their sight back. It's a cop out and bad storytelling. (And now the character has even worse traumatic brain injury than they had before.)I know I've focused mostly on the negative in this review. I did enjoy reading this book, for the most part. Marlowe is a good writer and tells a great story. She keeps the narrative/plot moving along and only rarely gets mired down inside a character's head to the point that I started skimming---but this was usually only a few paragraphs.
This was enjoyable enough that I'm still really looking forward to reading the next book in the series.
loverofromance's review against another edition
3.0
This review was originally posted on Addicted To Romance
Welcome to the Book Tour for The Madness of Lord Westfall by Mia Marlowe. This is a talented writer and she always delivers a unique style of romance. I love the way she writes, its different from any other historical writer. She has a fresh and rich voice that is evident through the pages. So excited for this new series full of adventure, intrigue and depth of emotion.
In this story, we have Viscount Westfall who hears the thoughts of others. He was sent by his uncle into a mad house and his time there still haunts Pierce. But then he was rescued by a friend and leader of the order of the M.U.S.E. His mentor is training him to handle his gift and to block if he needs to. Then at a ball, he meets Lady Nora Claremont, a carefree courtesan he feels sparks with. Pierce and Nora share passion with each other, but Nora is mixed up with business that could lead to her being a traitor. Only Pierce will be able to find a way to protect the woman he loves and exposing the real traitor.
This was quite interesting to read, and unfortunately I didn’t enjoy it as much as I would have liked. I was super tired while reading this one, so I believe that was the biggest reason or I might have had a much more fun time with this book. The plot was just fascinating, and even though I was a bit confused about the order of the M.U.S.E. and what is exactly was for a while. I do believe I want to read the first book and hopefully it will help make more sense before I read the next book.
What I really liked about this book was seeing the mix of psychic and historical elements come into play. This isn’t your average regency romance. Mia Marlowe has created such a unique series that has a feel to it that is set apart from anything else she has ever written. What we have is a order of the M.U.S.E., agents that all have psychic abilities and aid in the crown. We see some fun characters and I was really intrigued by a few that were closely tied to this couple. It was interesting seeing the plot development, and there was such depth to this story. I really wasn’t expecting so much from this book. This book had spicy passion, delicious adventure, intrigue and load of secrets to be unraveled. Mysterious and engaging, this story is packed with enough to satisfy and add some tasty delights to your appetite. I can’t wait to read more from this series.
Welcome to the Book Tour for The Madness of Lord Westfall by Mia Marlowe. This is a talented writer and she always delivers a unique style of romance. I love the way she writes, its different from any other historical writer. She has a fresh and rich voice that is evident through the pages. So excited for this new series full of adventure, intrigue and depth of emotion.
In this story, we have Viscount Westfall who hears the thoughts of others. He was sent by his uncle into a mad house and his time there still haunts Pierce. But then he was rescued by a friend and leader of the order of the M.U.S.E. His mentor is training him to handle his gift and to block if he needs to. Then at a ball, he meets Lady Nora Claremont, a carefree courtesan he feels sparks with. Pierce and Nora share passion with each other, but Nora is mixed up with business that could lead to her being a traitor. Only Pierce will be able to find a way to protect the woman he loves and exposing the real traitor.
This was quite interesting to read, and unfortunately I didn’t enjoy it as much as I would have liked. I was super tired while reading this one, so I believe that was the biggest reason or I might have had a much more fun time with this book. The plot was just fascinating, and even though I was a bit confused about the order of the M.U.S.E. and what is exactly was for a while. I do believe I want to read the first book and hopefully it will help make more sense before I read the next book.
What I really liked about this book was seeing the mix of psychic and historical elements come into play. This isn’t your average regency romance. Mia Marlowe has created such a unique series that has a feel to it that is set apart from anything else she has ever written. What we have is a order of the M.U.S.E., agents that all have psychic abilities and aid in the crown. We see some fun characters and I was really intrigued by a few that were closely tied to this couple. It was interesting seeing the plot development, and there was such depth to this story. I really wasn’t expecting so much from this book. This book had spicy passion, delicious adventure, intrigue and load of secrets to be unraveled. Mysterious and engaging, this story is packed with enough to satisfy and add some tasty delights to your appetite. I can’t wait to read more from this series.
malissac's review against another edition
4.0
This is a genre that I honestly do not read enough, especially considering my education is as a Historian, but I am very glad that I requested this book when it came to my attention.
I immediately fell head over heels for the main characters in this story. Lord Pierce Westfall, is so well developed and his story so heart breaking that you just ache for him. Lady Nora Claremont's story is just as tragic and compelling. Even from the first few chapters you are already rooting for these two and praying that they get their HEA.
I loved the paranormal aspect and how the cast of characters are using their gifts, I do wish we had gotten more court intrigue where this story is concerned but I know if we had the book would likely have ended up being twice as long because there is no way you could cut out any of the romantic or personal development aspects. The challenge is that we know what and why of the story, but we don't get the detail into it's background. We hear all about 'Prinny', the Prince Regent but never meet him, never enter into his court, or understand truly anything about him and considering the story ultimately revolves around possible treason against the crown having more detail in that area would have made this a 5 star for me. Now, keep in mind what I mentioned earlier, I am a Historian by education so this may really just be an issue of me loving history so much that I just want it all, lol.
I thoroughly enjoyed the intrigue and suspense, the small twists and turns kept me flipping pages just as much as the romance did. And Lord Westfall does the most amazing thing for Lady Nora, it will make you gasp, cry, and swoon.
There aren't many details I can give you about the book because so many of the details tie into the plot and I don't want to spoil anything for you, but know that this is a wonderful book about finding peace with ones self whether that is due to the choices you have made or the choices that have been made for you. It is a interesting peep (and I say peep because the author only just scratches the surface) at how mental illnesses were treated in the 19th century and in particular at England's notorious Bethlem Royal Hospital or Bedlam as well as an interesting look into the workings of the Ton and how they treated those who were shall we say outside of their comfort zone of what they considered respectable.
This is a great read for anyone who is a fan of Historical Fiction with a paranormal bent. This is the second book in the series and while you won't be completely lost, particularly the farther in the book you get, because the main focus of the book is the main characters relationship there are moments you will realize that you have missed something if you didn't read book, The Curse of Lord Stanstead. It could however be read as a stand-alone especially since after much misery and turmoil for the characters we the readers get our HEA.
~ HAPPY READING ~
I immediately fell head over heels for the main characters in this story. Lord Pierce Westfall, is so well developed and his story so heart breaking that you just ache for him. Lady Nora Claremont's story is just as tragic and compelling. Even from the first few chapters you are already rooting for these two and praying that they get their HEA.
I loved the paranormal aspect and how the cast of characters are using their gifts, I do wish we had gotten more court intrigue where this story is concerned but I know if we had the book would likely have ended up being twice as long because there is no way you could cut out any of the romantic or personal development aspects. The challenge is that we know what and why of the story, but we don't get the detail into it's background. We hear all about 'Prinny', the Prince Regent but never meet him, never enter into his court, or understand truly anything about him and considering the story ultimately revolves around possible treason against the crown having more detail in that area would have made this a 5 star for me. Now, keep in mind what I mentioned earlier, I am a Historian by education so this may really just be an issue of me loving history so much that I just want it all, lol.
I thoroughly enjoyed the intrigue and suspense, the small twists and turns kept me flipping pages just as much as the romance did. And Lord Westfall does the most amazing thing for Lady Nora, it will make you gasp, cry, and swoon.
There aren't many details I can give you about the book because so many of the details tie into the plot and I don't want to spoil anything for you, but know that this is a wonderful book about finding peace with ones self whether that is due to the choices you have made or the choices that have been made for you. It is a interesting peep (and I say peep because the author only just scratches the surface) at how mental illnesses were treated in the 19th century and in particular at England's notorious Bethlem Royal Hospital or Bedlam as well as an interesting look into the workings of the Ton and how they treated those who were shall we say outside of their comfort zone of what they considered respectable.
This is a great read for anyone who is a fan of Historical Fiction with a paranormal bent. This is the second book in the series and while you won't be completely lost, particularly the farther in the book you get, because the main focus of the book is the main characters relationship there are moments you will realize that you have missed something if you didn't read book, The Curse of Lord Stanstead. It could however be read as a stand-alone especially since after much misery and turmoil for the characters we the readers get our HEA.
~ HAPPY READING ~
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