I’m starting to see the appeal of romances, especially the ones where a happily ever is guaranteed. I don’t always like the emotional angst characters have to go through to get there, and I’ve discovered that I’m not a huge fan of the “you’re better off without me” trope (it hits a bit close to home in my own personal history). However, there are certain instances where it works, such as in a time and society where two people in love being together is literally a crime (sadly, this is still the case in our own time). 

One aspect of Sebastian’s characters that I quite enjoy is that the characters are very male. That’s not to imply that the feminine of any sort in male characters is a bad thing, but instead that there is no way I could mentally replace either of these characters with a woman appropriate to the time period without massive changes to the story and plot.

Another great facet to this story was the representation of a disabled character who is not defined by his disability. I also appreciated the realistic hints of PTSD an experienced solider might deal with.

On a side note, I’m quite glad I read the “second” book in this series first; Georgie does not strike me as a character I’d want to read more about based on his presentation here. However, I very much enjoyed his own installment in this series. So, even though I didn’t really care for Courtenay in The Lawrence Browne Affair, I look forward seeing how I feel about him after reading his tale.

Rating: 5 (out of 5) stars. Cross-posted to Amazon and Goodreads.