Yes, another visit to the world of Regency fiction today – and it’s a real pleasure to share my publication day review of Snowbound With The Brooding Lord by Sarah Mallory. Published today (23rd November) by Mills & Boon/Harlequin Historical, it’s now available via Amazon in the UK and US for kindle and in paperback, on other major e-book platforms, and also through the publishers’ websites. My thanks to the author for providing an e-copy to allow me to write an early review.
I’m a great deal more comfortable these days reading Regency fiction – I’d always thought it wasn’t for me, but Sarah’s books made me realise that I was entirely wrong and had me vowing to read rather more. It’s proving a bit difficult though to fit in a wider range of authors when the contemporary fiction keeps on coming (I’m really not complaining…!), but I do promise to keep trying. I must say though that I’m so delighted by Sarah’s lovely writing – the wonderful story-telling, the world she creates so well, the edge-of-the-seat moments, the chemistry between her well-drawn characters – that I just couldn’t resist squeezing her latest book into my reading list. I really loved her last one, The Major And The Scandalous Widow (you can read my review again here) – but back in April, I also thoroughly enjoyed The Night She Met The Duke (one I’d equally recommend – you’ll find my review here), and I was so thrilled to find that one of my favourite supporting characters, Lord John (Jack) Callater, was to have his own story.
Will they forgive each other
By the time the snow melts…?
Years ago Sabrina walked away from her first love, Jack, because she was duty-bound to marry for money. Now a widow, she finds herself back in Jack’s intoxicating orbit—but he’s reluctant to trust Sabrina again. And it’s not just the brooding Lord who has changed…marriage has left a painful mark on Sabrina. So when they’re trapped by a snowstorm, will they find a way to finally be together?
Sabrina Kydd was the woman who won Jack’s heart some years before, and who he planned to marry – but, on the day he visited to ask for her hand, she had disappeared, later to re-emerge as the wife of another, leaving him heartbroken. But she’s now the widowed Lady Massyngham, back on the social scene, and rather than the young innocent she was when he last knew her, has gained a reputation as the Wicked Widow – whether that’s justified or not, his hurt runs deep and he’s determined not to be drawn to her again.
But the spark between them is still very much there – and travelling back together from Devon to London (not entirely by choice) they find their journey impeded by heavy snowfall, finding refuge in a house where a child has been abandoned by her father and household, and have no choice but to spend time there together. And they find that what remains between them is far more than just a spark – there’s still a very strong attraction, a love that never died, but only if he can forgive the hurt she caused, understand her reasons, and grow to trust her once more.
This really was a quite wonderful second chance romance, with the most extraordinary chemistry between its characters. I really enjoyed the way the story was told, the reasons for Sabrina’s abrupt departure slowly emerging through a series of flashbacks and difficult confessions – they’re a couple who are really meant to be together, but its not the easiest path to reconciliation and the possibility of a happy future. The characterisation is really excellent – both Sabrina and Jack are eminently likeable, but there’s a lot of hurt and anger from the earlier betrayal, and the exchanges between them flash and sizzle as they attempt to overcome the many obstacles between them. Theirs was a romance I entirely believed in – I was so involved in their relationship at an emotional level and desperately wanted those barriers to come down.
There were other elements to the story I really enjoyed too – including the strong supporting characters, with their own stories. It was particularly special to meet Pru and Garrick again – I’d very much enjoyed their story in The Night She Met The Duke, in which Jack featured as Garrick’s friend – and seeing how their life together had turned out. The political and social backdrop – underlying Sabrina’s earlier disappearance, raising its head again in a particularly dramatic episode on their return to London – was wholly fascinating, the 1816 social unrest and riots something I’d never come across before, the violence in stark contrast to the drawing rooms and ballrooms more usually seen in Regency fiction.
This was a book I really enjoyed – perfectly paced, so emotionally engaging, and the most wonderful storytelling. I read it in a single sitting, the pages turning ever faster, entirely invested in its characters and the progress of their relationship – and the romance really was something very special indeed. Very much recommended.
About the author
I write under the names of Melinda Hammond and Sarah Mallory: I am a proud patron of the Lancashire Authors Association and a long-time member of the Romantic Novelists Association.
I have been telling stories for as long as I can remember – many of them born of frustration when I was stuck in a classroom longing to be rescued! I love anything romantic, whether it is a grand opera or a beautiful painting. It doesn’t necessarily have to be happy, as long as it is inspiring.
I was born in Bristol and grew up on Barton Hill, an area of small terraced houses built in the nineteenth century between the mills and the railway. I think my love of adventure stories is due to the fact that I grew up with three older brothers and lived in a street full of boys! My love of history and the English language was fostered at grammar school, where I soon discovered the delights of Georgian and Regency fiction, first of all with the works of Jane Austen and then Georgette Heyer.
I left school at sixteen to work in companies as varied as stockbrokers, marine engineers, biscuit manufacturers and even a quarrying company, but I never lost my love of history, and when I wasn’t reading and researching the Georgian and Regency period I was writing stories about it.
When I was at home with my first child, I decided to try my hand at writing seriously, and my first historical novel, Fortune’s Lady, was published by Robert Hale in 1980. I have now published more than twenty novels, over a dozen of them as Melinda Hammond, winning the Reviewers Choice award in 2005 from Singletitles.com for Dance for a Diamond and the Historical Novel Society’s Editors Choice in 2006 for Gentlemen in Question. Writing as Sarah Mallory for Harlequin Mills & Boon, The Earl’s Runaway Bride won a coveted CataNetwork Reviewers Choice award for 2010 and I have won the the RNA’s RoNA Rose Award in 2012 and 2013.
After many years living on the West Yorkshire moors, I have now moved to the remote Scottish Highlands. The new house overlooks the sea, where the stunning scenery inspires me to write even more!
I shall add this to my wish list, I like Sarah’s writing style.
And so do I, Rosie – I hope you’ll enjoy this one as much as I did…