In Loving the Hawke, the first of Lana William's new 7 Curses of London series, Lettie Fairchild has weathered five of Victorian England's
brutal 'seasons', the precious years given a woman to make a respectable match
that will supposedly support all her hopes and dreams for a happy and secure
life. Failing that, she's expected to resign herself to spinsterhood while
still a young woman.
Lettie's had little success and is almost content with a
solitary future but she's not content to be virtually a servant to her mother
as she works to marry off her younger sisters in the season du jour. Lettie is
smart and courageous, not to mention outraged by the circumstances of the
forgotten and vulnerable children of the impoverished citizens of London.
She sets out to make a difference, unaware of the danger a
young woman alone faces in the shady back alleys of the city. But Nathaniel
Hawke is well aware of those dangers and shocked to see this woman so out of place and so
at risk as she naively attempts to offer better options than the
long hours of hard labor in London's factories to young girls.
Nathanial has his own issues to sort through including the
internal scars of a dysfunctional childhood and the external injuries that
forced him to retire from a prestigious military career. Daniel is on a mission
to stop a ring that traffics in kidnapped young women. But Lettie's arrival in
the gritty streets of the East End leaves him torn between protecting her and
pursuing his own goals.
As Lettie and Nathaniel confront each other in the streets
of the city as well as the ballrooms of the Ton, their missions intertwine and
their hearts aren't far behind. Readers are compelled to turn the pages of Loving the Hawke to see
if these two manage to survive, succeed and, hopefully, realize they are made
for each other.