Stevie‘s review of The Allure of Attraction (The Matchmaker of Edinburgh, Book 3) by Julia Kelly
Historical Romance published by Pocket Star 25 Jun 18
Julia Kelly continues her charming Victorian-set series with a particularly challenging case for Mrs Moira Sullivan, the Matchmaker of Edinburgh. This time she has to reunite a pair of former lovers, separated for sixteen years but now forced to work together for the good of their country. One can’t get over believing her love was drowned following a shipwreck – not hearing from him for so long that her parents forced her to marry another – while the other still resents how swiftly he seemed to be set aside in favour of a man with better background and prospects. Now, however, Andrew Colter is a soon-to-retire Captain in the British Navy, while Lavina Parkem (nee Malcolm) has built up a thriving dressmaking business – popular with everyone who is anyone in the town – after her husband died suddenly and in debt.
Andrew swore he wouldn’t work for the War Office again, after leaving his ship and his command behind, just as he swore he wouldn’t look up his former fiancée once he was back in Scotland. Unfortunately, the War Office has one last mission for Andrew to carry out, and to complete it he needs to convince Lavinia to spy on her landlord: an obnoxious man whose mother is one of her least favourite customers, but a man nonetheless who also happens to own a warehouse in which was found a stash of illegal weapons. Since the Prince of Wales is due to make a much publicised visit to Edinburgh, Andrew’s erstwhile employers are convinced that the warehouse owner or his associates is planning a terrorist attack for reasons as yet unknown.
Posing as the owner of a buttons and ‘notions’ shop, Andrew makes contact with Lavinia and gets a most frosty reception from her. Lavinia is even less pleased at Andrew’s arrival when she finds out the reason behind it, but is talked around by her great friend Moira – who has done occasional investigative work herself for Andrew’s official Edinburgh contact. Lavinia isn’t happy at being asked to pretend interest in her landlord, and Andrew is even less happy with the idea when he realises just how keen the odious man is on Lavinia. Needs must, of course, and soon the reunited pair find themselves growing closer, even as Lavinia has to suffer the company of her landlord and his friends.
I loved Lavinia’s resourcefulness, even though it landed her in danger more than once. Andrew was a little too stuffy at times, but the story made up for that with a wealth of entertaining background characters. I especially loved Lavinia’s fabric-supplier Indian neighbours and Andrew’s unexpectedly female Edinburgh field agent contact. There were times when I felt that Lavinia rushed a little too fast into situations without securing sufficient backup, and other occasions when I felt Andrew didn’t give her enough of a chance to make her own decisions, and the happy ever after definitely felt rushed and a bit of an abrupt turn-away from their previous lives. All in all, though, another fun instalment for the series.
Grade: B
Summary:
Lavinia Parkem, the most talented dressmaker in Edinburgh, has never forgotten her first love: Captain Andrew Colter. They were meant to be married years earlier but when Andrew’s ship was wrecked in the Caribbean her parents forced her to marry another.
Andrew may have survived a shipwreck to find fame and fortune at sea, but he never fully healed after Lavinia’s abandonment. Instead, he dedicated himself to the navy—and secret missions for the foreign office. Nearing retirement and back on British soil, he’s given a new assignment—infiltrate the home of a wealthy banker who’s suspected of being behind a plan to assassinate the Prince of Wales. But to do that, Andrew must recruit and turn the woman the banker once wooed: Lavinia Parkem.
Unable to shirk his duties, Andrew begrudgingly uses the influence of successful matchmaker of Edinburgh to convince the now-widowed Lavinia to help him take down his mark. She relents, telling herself that Andrew’s no longer the warm, loving young man she once knew. But the more time she spends with him, the harder it is to pretend there’s no longer any attraction there. And it’s tormenting Andrew that he must ask her to put herself in more and more danger and now, he must decide whether his duty to queen and country is worth risking the life of the woman he never stopped loving.
Read an excerpt.
Other books in this series:
