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The Heir
Grace Burrowes
Historical Romance
Duke's Obsession/Book 1
Sourcebooks/December 7, 2010
From Goodreads ~
AN EARL WHO CAN'T BE BRIBED
Gayle Windham, Earl of Westhaven, is the first legitimate son and heir to the Duke of Moreland. To escape his father's inexorable pressure to marry, he decides to spend the summer at his townhouse in London, where he finds himself intrigued by the secretive ways of his beautiful housekeeper...
A LADY WHO CAN'T BE PROTECTED...
Anna Seaton is a beautiful, talented, educated woman, which is why it is so puzzling to Gayle Windham that she works as his housekeeper.
As the two draw closer and begin to lose their hearts to each other, Anna's secrets threaten to bring the earl's orderly life crashing down - and he doesn't know how he's going to protect her from the fallout...
After seeing a bunch of good reviews for Grace Burrowes debut novel, then it's offered as a free download it was easy to pick it up and give it a try. It turned out to be a good, solid read with an engaging family of unusual aristocrats.
Anna Seaton is a lovely young woman with secrets and responsibilities that go beyond her housekeeper duties. Anna is funny and smart with a surprising lack of modesty when it comes to her employer. She doesn't run screaming or faint away when she must act as his valet. It's amusing and while I found Anna's actions a little hard to believe, I enjoyed her interactions with Windham. She intrigues him and pulls him out of his orderly life.
Gayle Windham, Earl of Westhaven, likes structure in his life. He likes to keep to a schedule and prefers not to deviate from it. When he decides to stay in London for the summer he expects it to be a quiet time away from his family and the drama they stir up. When he and his housekeeper have a misunderstanding of the painful kind, he begins to notice her and how she has been improving his home. Westhaven is a typical oldest son in that he is responsible and accustomed to taking charge of situations. I liked how he began to loosen up when he was with Anna, allowing himself to deviate from his orderly life and learn to enjoy spontaneity.
Anna and Westhaven together are an odd couple on the surface but it turns out they have a lot more in common. I did like how Westhaven thought she was a bit odd but still respected her and enjoyed her company. They did jump between the sheets pretty quickly and Burrowes can write some hot sex scenes. Anna helped Westhaven loosen up there too! By the time these two got to their HEA, they felt like a couple that belonged together.
The family that Westhaven was hoping to get away from doesn't stay away. His father is a schemer, trying to get his eldest son married with an heir on the way. His brother is an adorable musical genius who's hiding some dark secrets. The rest of the family adds in their own drama which only shows Westhaven how much he needs the peace and pleasure Anna gives him.
The second book of the series, The Soldier is already out with the third book, Lady Sophie's Christmas Wish is due out in October with book four, The Virtuoso due out in November. The Heir was an amusing and entertaining romance leaving this reader wanting to read more of from this new author. Ms. Burrowes is giving readers a lot to look forward to this fall.
Rating: B
Books in the series ~
The Heir
The Soldier
Lady Sophie's Christmas Wish (October 2011)
The Virtuoso (November 2011)
It's interesting how diffferent people read the same book. I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and one of the things I appreciated about it was the time the author took in developing the tension between Anna and Gayle!
ReplyDeleteI loved the relationship between the brothers and can't wait to read more about this family!
I liked the writing, although sometimes, some words were a bit jarring ^_^; I liked the premises and the characters... but the romance... I don't know, it was a big draggy imo.
ReplyDeleteMarg ~ I like the brothers too! Val especially caught my interest. Can't wait to read his book.
ReplyDeleteNath ~ Do you meaning jarring as sounding modern? I seem to remember thinking that in a recent read, just don't remember if it was this one. LOL
Hmmm, more like jarring it doesn't go with the flow/writing style.
ReplyDeleteI downloaded this one for free and then the next one for either free or a very good price - can't remember which. Then when I went to RWA, they were both in our freebie bags!
ReplyDeleteI liked it. I wasn't blown away and I didn't have the overwhelming urge to immediately read The Soldier. Though I did like The Heir well enough to want to read The Soldier :-)