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Set during the reign of Charles II, April 1667, the king has sent the mute daughter of a traitor to the crown to the disillusioned Alexander Fletcher, Lord Drayton who wants nothing more than to be left alone. Alex loved his wife who soon grew to hate him so much, she took her own life and he would not take the chance of ever being that vulnerable again. Lady Katherine Seymour the once envied, pursued, and betrothed young woman had lost her father, her fiancé, her voice, and all worldly goods in the great London fire. Lord Drayton, seemingly indifferent to her plight, only adds to the anguish of losing so much. But in a fit of passion Alex’s burning kiss ignites a fire he refuses to acknowledge even as he attempts to marry her off to a noble Katherine adamantly refuses to accept. As Katherine and Alex square off in a sensual battle of wills his neighbor, Agnes Cooke, recognizes another rival to her quest to become the next Lady Drayton and is not about to let another gain the prize she secretly covets. *** Author Pamela Roller did a very fine job with this beautifully detailed and sensual love story in which I was captivated from start to finish. Both leads were extremely well-drawn with Katherine showing an amazing perseverance over the hard knocks that life has thrown her way. The author did a remarkable job of showing how frustrated Katherine was with Lord Drayton’s edicts. Not being able to give voice to the way she would have liked to tell him off, the author used vivid imagery describing Katherine’s facial expressions as well as how the scratch of her chalk against her slate board drove him nuts. In the same way, the reader is able to see a slow melt-down of Alex’s harsh reserve and high handed edicts when the harder he tries to push Katherine into marriage to another, the more he realizes he wants to see her in no one’s bed but his own. The behind-the-scenes mechanisms of Lord Drayton’s neighbor, combined with unpleasant revelations by the king and his spiteful mistress, Lady Castlemaine, do a good job of destroying all the trust and respect he and Katherine had gained. With malice and some ingenious twists and turns, I never saw coming, turned this into an edge of the seat finale that kept this reader glued to the pages. Fans of historical romance who like a shades of gothic thrown in will surely find On Silent Wings to their taste. Marilyn Rondeau – Reviewers International Organization (RIO) |
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On Silent Wings
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