Short and Sweet Review: Rescuing the Earl by Lana Williams

This is the third installment of Lana William’s Seven Curses of London series and in my opinion she just gets better and better with each new installment. So far we’ve met wounded warrior Nathaniel Hawke and reclusive scholar Oliver, Viscount Frost. Both were men whose spirits were deeply injured but who found happiness with strong women willing to fight for their love.

In Rescuing the Earl we follow Nathaniel’s older brother, Tristan Hawke, the Earl of Adair.  His black temper has given him a reputation and also a burden—carrying on the legacy of an unloving father whose dark temperament continues on in his eldest son. 

To keep the one thing in his life that matters most--a property that gives him solace and peace but that is entailed to someone else if Tristan doesn’t marry by his next birthday--Tristan has proposed to a shrewish woman, Lady Samantha.  He is determined that her own bad nature is the only one tough enough to withstand the wrath of Tristan’s darkest moments.

Then, he literally runs into the widowed Grace and her young son Matthew. They are fleeing a devious relative who plots Matthew’s demise in order to inherit his title and estate. Tristan finds himself compelled to help them and, in the process, drawn more and more to the lovely widow and her delightful son.

As with other books in this series, there are complications connected with the social issues that plaque the London of the era. As a reader I was intrigued by the blossoming relationship between Grace and Tristan and anxious to see how they would surmount the hurdles that entangled their lives. The characters were interesting and complex, as was their relationship. If historical romance is your cup of tea, I highly recommend Rescuing the Earl.

Short and Sweet Review: Loving the Hawke (The Seven Curses of London Book 1) by Lana Williams

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.