Book Review
Nov. 11th, 2023 02:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kenjariYou Were Made to Be Mine
by Julie Anne Long
This is the fifth in The Palace of Rogues historical romance series. In this one, the Palace becomes a refuge for two very different people who are mysteriously connected. Lady Aurelie Capet is on the run from the fiance who assaulted her (and yes, there is a moderate content warning here). She holes up at the Palace under a false name while trying to arrange passage to her brother in Boston. Christian Hawkes is a former spy for the Crown who has just been released from a French prison. The Earl of Brundage has engaged Hawkes to find his missing fiancee, who is of course Aurelie. However, Hawkes strongly suspects Brundage is the traitor who sold him out to the French and is using the mission to find Aurelie to also investigate Brundage. An assassination attempt lands Hawkes bleeding and unconscious on the Palace doorstep. While convalescing, he and Aurelie get to know each other and fall in love. However, their respective secrets and missions must be resolved before they can be together.
Long dovetails the romance and the intrigue plots really nicely so that they complement each other rather than get in each other's way. It does make the romance a bit slower, but I liked the way it allowed Aurelie and Christian to get to know each other more. Aurelie had a fairly sheltered life, but she is no fool and has plenty of courage and daring. Hawkes is a guy who has been through a lot, but has not become too hardened by it. I also appreciated that neither of them wanted to fully enter into a relationship while they were each operating under false pretences. Their relationship is really satisfying, too, as it's based on mutual care and protectiveness. And for once we get a hero who has a tough, dark past but who is able to accept the heroine's love in spite of his uncertainty that he deserves it, rather than initially rejecting her out of a misplaced idea of what's best.
by Julie Anne Long
This is the fifth in The Palace of Rogues historical romance series. In this one, the Palace becomes a refuge for two very different people who are mysteriously connected. Lady Aurelie Capet is on the run from the fiance who assaulted her (and yes, there is a moderate content warning here). She holes up at the Palace under a false name while trying to arrange passage to her brother in Boston. Christian Hawkes is a former spy for the Crown who has just been released from a French prison. The Earl of Brundage has engaged Hawkes to find his missing fiancee, who is of course Aurelie. However, Hawkes strongly suspects Brundage is the traitor who sold him out to the French and is using the mission to find Aurelie to also investigate Brundage. An assassination attempt lands Hawkes bleeding and unconscious on the Palace doorstep. While convalescing, he and Aurelie get to know each other and fall in love. However, their respective secrets and missions must be resolved before they can be together.
Long dovetails the romance and the intrigue plots really nicely so that they complement each other rather than get in each other's way. It does make the romance a bit slower, but I liked the way it allowed Aurelie and Christian to get to know each other more. Aurelie had a fairly sheltered life, but she is no fool and has plenty of courage and daring. Hawkes is a guy who has been through a lot, but has not become too hardened by it. I also appreciated that neither of them wanted to fully enter into a relationship while they were each operating under false pretences. Their relationship is really satisfying, too, as it's based on mutual care and protectiveness. And for once we get a hero who has a tough, dark past but who is able to accept the heroine's love in spite of his uncertainty that he deserves it, rather than initially rejecting her out of a misplaced idea of what's best.
