The Knight Miscellany Book 2
Continuing with my re-read of this series, we now have the story of Lord Lucien Knight, a devilish spy, who collects his intelligence by hosting a secret and deviant sex society in the depths of his country mansion.
Then we have goody-two-shoes, Alice Montague, who stumbles upon the secret society while trying to find her fun-loving sister-in-law and drag her back home.
Dark and tortured Lucien takes one look at innocent Alice and wants to seduce her, to see if some of that goodness will rub off on him, and he blackmails her to get her to stay. I love a hero who resorts to blackmail. Wait – no, I don’t.
Of course, innocent Alice cannot possibly resist, because deep down she feels like she’s missing something from her life and …. oh blah, blah, blah… this is not how I remembered this! Have I become jaded after reading so many similar characters over the last twenty years? It feels so dull and overdone now. I originally gave this four stars and I have no idea why.
There’s instant lust on both sides, which apparently turns into love within three days. Urgh! They barely spend a few days together, they don’t know each other, yet they claim to love each other body and soul.
I’m starting to sound like a real story basher, but I also found Alice annoying and judgemental. Then she changed to be annoying and selfish, demanding Lucien gives up his government work immediately, even though she doesn’t know what he’s doing and expects him to drop everything right that second so they can run off to Gretna to get married.
Lucien refuses to tell Alice his secrets, for her protection, and she moans about that, too. Alice refuses to go down to the secret party one minute because she can’t stand those disgusting people enjoying meaningless sex orgies, but the next minute she’s stomping in there in self-righteous indignation, and coming to all the wrong conclusions despite Lucien’s request for her to trust him. To top it off she hurls an unjust ultimatum at him. Blackmail and ultimatums – they make a lovely couple.
Lucien, at least, had a bit more depth. He’s always felt like second best compared to his twin and even feels his work as a spy is judged as sordid, compared to his glorious, heroic, soldier brother. Lucien feels alone and wants someone to love him, and see him as the first choice, rather than “the other one”.
To sum up, the heat is adequate with a few sexy scenes but nothing that stands out. The plot is a little dull but livened up towards the end when the subplot took over and the action ramped up.
Plot: ⭐️⭐️
Feels: ⭐️⭐️
Heat: ⭐️⭐️
Overall: ⭐️⭐️
