Lawson’s review of After the Kiss by Suzanne Enoch
Historical romance released by Avon 24 Jun 08

This is the first book in the Notorious Gentelmen series by Enoch. For the sake of ease and just to assume something, the series is about three good friends who spent four years fighting together as officers in Spain against the French. Captains Phineas Bromley and Sullivan James Waring and Major Lord Bramwell Lowry Johns are very close friends, but two bullets in Sullivan’s shoulder and his mother’s death send him back to England with Lord Bram in tow. Phin is still fighting it out in Spain. And so the story begins.

Sullivan, back in England, is a respected horse breeder, even though he’s the unacknowledged illegitimate son of a Marquis. While at war, he trusted the wrong person and his father took his mother’s heritage from him (her paintings) and gave them to his aristocratic friends. Sullivan decides to get his vengeance and justice by stealing back the paintings because he knows his father won’t want to deal with a scandal of explaining the paintings and dealing with a son he won’t acknowledge.

While stealing one of the paintings Sullivan is caught unawares by Lady Isabel Chalsey in the middle of the night. He takes off with the painting and steals a kiss. She recognizes him the next day when her brother is buying a horse from him and blackmails him into training a horse for her, so she can keep and eye on him and find out why he stole from her family.

What starts as a game quickly turns into something more for Isabel and she has to come to terms with the fact that what she wants to do and society’s expectations don’t always go hand in hand. And keeping Sullivan around becomes dangerous for her heart, her sanity and her reputation.

While Sullivan is honorable, caring, patient, and obviously very sexy, Isabel, called Tibby, is spoiled, selfish, narrow minded, high handed and kind of a drama queen. At least she is honest with herself about most of those qualities. As she craves more and more time with Sullivan she realizes that society is as hypocritical as he says, especially after he confides in her the truth behind the thefts and his familial connections.

Though Tibby does start to grow as a character and open her eyes, she’s still rather dramatic, as a 19 year old would be, and the fact that she constantly gets what she wants shows her to be overly spoiled, if her heart is in the right place. Though Tibby and Sullivan and those around them, the reader sees how bad life really could be in Regency England. Not for lack of food or sanitation, but the fact that the people with titles and land ruled (money just made things better) and treated everyone else as dirt beneath their feet.

I have to say I was angry at quite a few of the secondary characters for most of the book for their treatment of Sullivan. Historical accuracy of people’s behavior doesn’t override my modern sensibilities enough, even though it was good to see such a measure of realism in a book. And by the end the respect that Sullivan had gained did help to ease his life as well as give him a sort of Hollywood-style resolution to his familial troubles.

With all this though, the grade would be higher if I’d felt more chemistry from Sullivan and Tibby. What he sees in a shallow girl who’s blackmailing him is hard to get at first. Then she keeps him around because it’s what she wants, and she’s used to getting what she wants. Only by the very end of the story does Tibby seem to grow up enough into a person that would fit with Sullivan well, which gives a decent HEA, but hard to see what kept him around her for so long.

The next in the series, Before the Scandal, follows Phineas Bromley after he returns from Spain, and the next will follow Bram. Bram will make a very interesting hero, along the lines of Lord St. Aubyn (who is my personal favorite and does get a mention in passing in this book). It’d be interesting to see what kind of story Tibby’s 16 year old brother Douglas could get, for his pivotal role made him another perhaps Notorious Gentleman.

Grade: B-
Blurb:

A Notorious Gentleman . . .

Sullivan Waring wants only two things: his rightful inheritance, and revenge against the man who stole it from him. By day, Sullivan is the most respected horse breeder in England; by night, he plunders the ton’s most opulent homes to reclaim his late mother’s beautiful paintings. His quest is going swimmingly . . . until the night he’s discovered by Lady Isabel Chalsey. Clad only in a revealing nightdress, she’s an entrancingly different kind of plunder, and how can a thief resist stealing a kiss?

A Curious Lady . . .

Surprised by a masked man in her own home, Isabel should be quaking with fear. Instead the sight of the sinfully handsome Sullivan makes her tremble with excitement. Who is this man, and why is he so set on this reckless pursuit? Lady Isabel loves a challenge, and she’ll dare anything to uncover Sullivan’s secret—but she may instead convince him that she is the greatest prize of all.