I received this book for free from Avon in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Lady Derring Takes a Lover by Julie Anne Long Also in this series: Angel in a Devil's Arms, How to Tame a Wild Rogue , My Season of Scandal
Series: The Palace of Rogues #1
Published by Avon on February 26, 2019
Genres: Historical Romance, Regency Era
Pages: 384
Format: eARC
Source: Avon
A mistress. A mountain of debt. A mysterious wreck of a building.
Delilah Swanpool, Countess of Derring, learns the hard way that her husband, "Dear Dull Derring," is a lot more interesting—and perfidious—dead than alive. It's a devil of an inheritance, but in the grand ruins of the one building Derring left her, are the seeds of her liberation. And she vows never again to place herself at the mercy of a man.
But battle-hardened Captain Tristan Hardy is nothing if not merciless. When the charismatic naval hero tracks a notorious smuggler to a London boarding house known as the Rogue's Palace, seducing the beautiful, blue-blooded proprietress to get his man seems like a small sacrifice.
They both believe love is a myth. But a desire beyond reason threatens to destroy the armor around their hearts. Now a shattering decision looms: Will Tristan betray his own code of honor…or choose a love that might be the truest thing he's ever known?
Lady Derring Takes A Lover is the first book in her latest series “Palace of Rogues” and I am so happy that Julie Anne Long is coming back to historical romance. She just does fabulous work in writing historical romance, especially since she does a decent job with the dialogue and setting up the regency. I was curious how her new series would go and how she would introduce us to this new series and I was pleasantly delighted with this book and even though it wasn’t quite the full page turner I was expecting, it was a fun read and I had a blast with Lady Derring Takes A Lover.
Lady Derring Takes A Lover, when our heroine, Delilah, the Countess of Derring’s husband dies, and she learns that her husband was in deep debt that she didn’t know about and she is now destitute except for a handful of jewelry and a building near the docks. Delilah, knows that her whole life has changed and she will have to be creative in order to survive. While on her way to the only building she owns, she runs into a woman she doesn’t know, but admires after having a conversation with….her husband’s mistress. They decide to join forces and create a boarding house, she has a dream to create a haven for those coming into London from the docks and even though it could be a better neighborhood, she is determined to make a success of it.
Then we bring in our hero, Captain Tristan Hardy, who is on a mission, to discover if Lady Derring is innocent of her husband’s crimes and to figure out what Lord Derring was up to with the secretive shipments of cigars so he goes to the boardinghouse that Lady Derring is showing, takes a room and works undercover to find out the truth behind the building and behind the mystery of Lady Delilah Derring. But as he gets close to the truth their relationship turns into something more than just a business deal and secrets could destroy the fragile trust between them.
This book was simply delightful and I enjoyed every moment. I have to say that the one aspect of this Long’s writing is her sexy bantering that she displays. I just love seeing what she has done here and so well done for sure. It was very interesting to see the series set up as a boardinghouse on the London Docks. I am not sure how realistic that is, but it was written very well so it did work for me. It was fascinating to see Tristan and Delilah come together and yes Tristan has a lot of secrets including his work for the foreign office. Now of course, there are secrets so you know that there will be backlash from that especially since its the scenario where the secret is dragged out. I wasn’t a big fan of this happening, but this author made it work without having it drive me crazy and I have to say that Tristan does a great job in his grovel in the end, PERFECTO!! I got all sorts of good feels seeing this story wrap up so nicely and we get a lovely teaser for the second book, so you do have some great things to look forward to here.
I adored the romance that builds between Tristan and Delilah. Its not a perfect romance by any means, but its quite enjoyable and highly entertaining. I love how well these two get along in and out of bed. Their characters are very charismatic in different ways so I loved seeing how they make a relationship work. It has a whole bunch of give and take that occur between them before they find the balance they need in their relationship. I do want to mention that the chemistry between these two are explosive, my goodness, this author knows how to write sexual chemistry and does it so well so that it doesn’t overtake the relationship. We also have a fun mystery about Lord Derring and this mysterious house on the docks.
Overall I found Lady Derring Finds A Lover to be a stimulating, sensual and empowering romance!! A SEXY ROMANCE TO DELIGHT IN!
About Julie Anne Long
Well, where should I start? I've lived in San Francisco for more than a decade, usually with at least one cat. I won the school spelling bee when I was in 7th grade; the word that clinched it was 'ukulele.' I originally set out to be a rock star when I grew up (I had a Bono fixation, but who didn't?), and I have the guitars and the questionable wardrobe stuffed in the back of my closet to prove it.
But writing was always my first love.
I was editor of my elementary school paper (believe it or not, Mrs. Little's fifth grade class at Glenmoor Elementary did have one); my high school paper (along with my best high school bud, Cindy Jorgenson); and my college paper, where our long-suffering typesetter finally forced me to learn how to typeset because my articles were usually late (and thus I probably have him to thank for all the desktop publishing jobs that ensued over the years).
Won a couple of random awards along the way: the Bank of America English Award in High School (which basically just amounted to a fancy plaque saying that I was really, really good at English); and an award for best Sports Feature article in a College Newspaper (and anyone who knows me well understands how deeply ironic that is). I began my academic career as a Journalism major; I switched to Creative Writing, which was a more comfortable fit for my freewheeling imagination and overdeveloped sense of whimsy. I dreamed of being a novelist.
But most of us, I think, tend to take for granted the things that come easily to us. I loved writing and all indications were that I was pretty good at it, but I, thank you very much, wanted to be a rock star. Which turned out to be ever-so-slightly harder to do than writing. A lot more equipment was involved, that's for sure. Heavy things, with knobs. It also involved late nights, fetid, graffiti-sprayed practice rooms, gorgeous flakey boys, bizarre gigs, in-fighting—what's not to love?
But my dream of being a published writer never faded. When the charm (ahem) of playing to four people in a tiny club at midnight on a Wednesday finally wore thin, however, I realized I could incorporate all the best things about being in a band — namely, drama, passion, and men with unruly hair — into novels, while at the same time indulging my love of history and research.
So I wrote The Runaway Duke, sent it to a literary agent (see the story here), who sold it to Warner Books a few months after that...which made 2003 one of the most extraordinary, head-spinning years I've ever had.
Why romance? Well, like most people, I read across many genres, but I've been an avid romance reader since I got in trouble for sneaking a Rosemary Rogers novel out of my mom's nightstand drawer (I think it was Sweet Savage Love). Rosemary Rogers, Kathleen Woodiwiss, Laurie McBain...I cut my romance teeth on those ladies. And in general, I take a visceral sort of pleasure in creating a hero and a heroine, putting them through their emotional paces, and watching their relationship develop on the page. And of course, there's much to be said for the happy ending. 🙂
And why Regency Historicals? Well, for starters, I think we can blame Jane Austen. Her inimitable wit, compassion and vision brought the Regency vividly to life for generations of readers. If Jane Austen had written romances about Incas, for instance, I think, we'd have racks and racks of Inca romances in bookstores all over the country, and Warner Forever would be the Inca Romance line.
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