109. Gentleman Jim

Gentleman Jim. Mimi Matthews. 2020. [November] 376 pages. [Source: Review copy]

First sentence: Beaten and bloody, Nicholas Seaton sat on the straw-covered floor of the loose box, his legs drawn up against his chest and his forehead resting on his knees.

Premise/plot: Margaret Honeywell is head over heels in love with Nicholas Seaton. The problem? Well, he's an illegitimate child of notorious 'Gentleman Jim' and she's the daughter of a wealthy squire. Though they come from different classes, both feel the other is home. When a bully--and her father's pick for her future husband--frames Nicholas Seaton for a crime he didn't commit--theft--Margaret helps him escape in the night before he can be brought before the magistrate and punished. Will she ever see him again? Can she bring herself to marry another?

Flash forward ten years and Margaret Honeywell just has months left to find a husband before she loses everything to that same old bully--Frederick Burton-Smythe. The problem? Well, he has the final say in who she marries. And he has a mind to marry her himself. (Of course he does.) Of course, there's also the fact that she is still very much broken hearted over the man who never came back home--Nicholas.

When she hears that Frederick Burton-Smythe is going to be fighting a duel...against an opponent who has skills...she realizes her position. IF he dies what will happen to her? There's no reasoning with him--she's had most her life to try to talk sense to him--but what about this other fellow, Lord St. Clare???

Their meeting is enough to take her breath away...

My thoughts: Gentleman Jim is a Regency Romance. It opens in 1807, but most of the book occurs in 1817. It is a thoroughly satisfying romance. If you like regency romance or historical fiction in general, then this one might prove worth your time.

Is it a clean read? I'd say it was more PG-13. It's more steamy kisses fade to dark.

I think it would make an awesome movie!!!

© 2020 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews