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A review by mdalida
The Lawrence Browne Affair by Cat Sebastian
5.0
I devoured this book as quickly as I did the first in the series - and was not disappointed! Wow wow wow, if I had only known about Cat Sebastian earlier!
Lawrence, the reclusive Earl who thinks craziness will seep into him like it did to his father and brother, was my favorite - described like a big bear with his massive size and muscles but also with some crippling anxiety and past trauma issues; he is also a scientist who is working on what will become the telegraph. His character almost screams past trauma like a wounded animal who is obviously in pain and yet snarls at any one who comes close. Reading his wonder at identifying flirtation and also engaging in sexual acts without all the guilt and shame was very sweet.
Georgie was a bit more problematic for me. While Jack from the first book is like an edgier Robin Hood, Georgie doesn't really pretend to be helping anyone; he's into the plotting and swindling. I always have a bit of a hard time with criminal lead characters. And his name is Georgie! It sounds cute and innocent, which is likely the point, but it was hard to take it seriously that he was some hardened criminal with a name like Georgie!
Their chemistry was HOT. Holy wow, I stopped a few times just to soak it all in! Lawrence's repressed sexual nature, since he thought being gay was part of his madness, was a big emotional pull for me. I enjoyed their buildup / love me some angst!
The set up of the heroes was similar in some ways to the first book where the couple is built on opposites. Here, there's the same class difference between the two, though Georgie has zero concern about that. There's also the personality difference where the aristocrat is more repressed but innocent in different ways that is appealing to the jaded Turner brothers. In this book, their physical appearances were also strikingly different; Georgie is described as slight and slender while Lawrence is big, muscly, and hairy. I didn't mind the similar tropes between the books because they were identical, and it didn't detract from the main story.
And an aside: I loved loved loved that the main other scientist in this book, who also showed herself to be empathetic to her friend the Earl, was a woman! All kinds of mavericks for characters!
In the end, I was blown away by this book even with the high standards that were set from the first one. So, on to the third book in this series!
Lawrence, the reclusive Earl who thinks craziness will seep into him like it did to his father and brother, was my favorite - described like a big bear with his massive size and muscles but also with some crippling anxiety and past trauma issues; he is also a scientist who is working on what will become the telegraph. His character almost screams past trauma like a wounded animal who is obviously in pain and yet snarls at any one who comes close. Reading his wonder at identifying flirtation and also engaging in sexual acts without all the guilt and shame was very sweet.
Georgie was a bit more problematic for me. While Jack from the first book is like an edgier Robin Hood, Georgie doesn't really pretend to be helping anyone; he's into the plotting and swindling. I always have a bit of a hard time with criminal lead characters. And his name is Georgie! It sounds cute and innocent, which is likely the point, but it was hard to take it seriously that he was some hardened criminal with a name like Georgie!
Their chemistry was HOT. Holy wow, I stopped a few times just to soak it all in! Lawrence's repressed sexual nature, since he thought being gay was part of his madness, was a big emotional pull for me. I enjoyed their buildup / love me some angst!
The set up of the heroes was similar in some ways to the first book where the couple is built on opposites. Here, there's the same class difference between the two, though Georgie has zero concern about that. There's also the personality difference where the aristocrat is more repressed but innocent in different ways that is appealing to the jaded Turner brothers. In this book, their physical appearances were also strikingly different; Georgie is described as slight and slender while Lawrence is big, muscly, and hairy. I didn't mind the similar tropes between the books because they were identical, and it didn't detract from the main story.
And an aside: I loved loved loved that the main other scientist in this book, who also showed herself to be empathetic to her friend the Earl, was a woman! All kinds of mavericks for characters!
In the end, I was blown away by this book even with the high standards that were set from the first one. So, on to the third book in this series!