Mini-Comments

For Clara Deverill, standing in for the real Lady Truelove means dispensing advice on problems she herself has never managed to overcome. There’s nothing for it but to retreat to a tearoom and hope inspiration strikes between scones. It doesn’t—until Clara overhears a rake waxing eloquent on the art of “honorable” jilting. The cad may look like an Adonis, but he’s about to find himself on the wrong side of Lady Truelove.

Rex Galbraith is an heir with no plans to produce a spare. He flirts with the minimum number of eligible young ladies to humor his matchmaking aunt, but Clara is the first to ever catch his roving eye. When he realizes that Clara—as Lady Truelove—has used his advice as newspaper fodder, he’s infuriated. But when he’s forced into a secret alliance with her, he realizes he’s got a much bigger problem—because Clara is upending everything Rex thought he knew about women—and about himself. . . .  

- // -

London.
Detective Sergeant James Henderson’s remarkable gut instincts have put him on a three-year fast track to becoming an inspector. But the advancement of his career has come at a cost. Gay, posh and eager to prove himself in the Metropolitan Police, James has allowed himself few chances for romance.
But when the murder of barrister Maria Curzon-Whyte lands in his lap, all that changes. His investigation leads him to a circle of irresistibly charming men. And though he knows better, James finds himself enticed into their company.
Soon his desire for photographer Ben Morgan challenges him to find a way into the other man’s lifestyle of one-night stands and carefree promiscuity. At the same time his single murder case multiplies into a cruel pattern of violence and depravity.
But as the bodies pile up and shocking secrets come to light, James finds both his tumultuous private life and coveted career threatened by a bitter legacy. 

Comment: Two small comments about books I've read recently but of which I don't have much to say besides the fact I enjoyed them both, each for different reasons.

Bitter Legacy is the first book I read by Dal Maclean and I was convinced to read it by some positive opinions. I think the main protagonist, James, is a very appealing hero and I liked getting to know about his personality and morals by his actions through the book. I was rooting for him and his ability to perform his job as a police inspector. 

The book is centered on murder investigations and police procedures and that part of the story is secretive enough to be compelling but not that it doesn't start to lead a certain path from clues here and there. 

The plot is closely interwoven with James' personal live and the apartment he visits (when the story begins) and starts to live in, and how attracted he get to its owner Ben. These two aspects are very close and although I found the manner in which things mixed very cleverly done by the author, I can't help but being in the camp of those who wish the villain had been a different one and, thus, the end would be different too. 

I don't know if I'll read more books by this author so soon... I liked practically everything here, especially James and the emotional content he enhanced by his thoughts. But the romance aspect is, in my opinion, unfair and unromantic and not satisfactory in the end.

Grade: 7/10

The Trouble With True Love is the second installment in the True Love series by Laura Lee Guhrke. I liked the first one and was curious about the character that would be protagonist of this one.

Clara Deverill is the sort of heroine that in nowadays' historical books isn't much popular. I mean the heroine who wants to get married, who wants an easy life at home. This is no feisty, no rebel, no out of trend (like her sister, the protagonist of the first book) heroine who gets her HEA by being different from the norm. 

However, part of these stories - I've come to realize - is to see how each character learns to balance what they want with the things they don't, so of course part of the fun is to see Clare enjoying the situations where she must have a strong voice and do things she didn't think she could. Same for the hero Rex, although he has a different background to support his actions and reasons for his behavior.

I liked how thee two didn't seem to have things in common but while developing a reluctant friendship at first, learned they could be in love with each other and although the very end is a little too sweet, it was still very good and left me with a smile. I'm looking for to read the next one!

Grade: 7/10