An Unexpected Gentleman by Alissa Johnson

An Unexpected Gentleman by Alissa Johnson

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Dear Historical Romance,

This, I fear, is where we will have to part ways. But I assure you, it's not you, it's me. If there was any member of your genre that could convince me of this it's Alissa Johnson. She had a lovely writing style that reminded me a lot of Lisa Kleypas' novels. I fully believe that if I had read this a couple years ago, I would've loved it.

The hero of the story, Connor Brice, is hellbent on revenge against his half brother, Sir Robert. The first step in his revenge? Steal Sir Robert's fiancee, Adelaide Ward. The fact that Miss Ward is the same woman Connor had been fascinated with, while sitting in prison, is just a bonus. For her part, Adelaide is trapped. She doesn't want to marry the condescending Sir Robert but her brother's gambling habit has left her with little choice. Its either marry Sir Robert for his 5,000 pounds a year or go to the poor house with her little sister and nephew in tow. Things begin to spin out of control though when Connor interferes with her plans and Adelaide gets sucked even further into the brothers' game of revenge.

See what I mean? Johnson has a pretty interesting revenge plot going on here. Connor's drive and focus on his revenge is believable and I felt Sir Robert needed to be taken down a peg or two. The guy was horrible. Poor Adelaide just has the misfortune of getting swept up in the tide of the two brothers' animosity. So then, what was my problem? The elimination of Adelaide's choices and power. Was she given the choice between Sir Robert and Connor? Yes. Is this more than what the typical historical romances with compromised heroines get? Yes. But honestly, she still didn't really get a decision. Sir Robert was painted so horribly that Adelaide would've been committing suicide if she chose him. Connor, however, wasn't painted much better. He manipulated her just as badly as Sir Robert. The only thing that saved him was that he had been attracted to her before he found out she was Sir Robert's fiancee. And you know, wasn't abusive.

Adelaide herself was a pretty good HR heroine. She was practical, smart, and didn't take much crap from Connor. Yet she fell into the innocent virgin heroine trope that I so loathe. Yes, it's so integrated into the genre that it's practically a requirement but I was still annoyed with her naivete about sex. I ended up skipping the sex scene between Connor and her, because I just wasn't interesting in reading another HR deflowering scene where the more experienced hero shows the heroine the ropes.

So you see? It's not you, it's me. This book has a wonderful hero and heroine, a fairly original plot, and some great supporting characters. Most of my problems stemmed from the tropes in the genre. So this is where I fear we will have to part ways. I would recommend this novel to anyone who enjoys Elizabeth Hoyt and Lisa Kleypas. Johnson has a writing style that fans of those two authors will enjoy immensely.

Much Love,
Sam

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