Warning: this "review" tells you very little about the book really

I've read most of Liz Carlyle's oeuvre now but one I seemed to have missed was No True Gentleman, the story of Max de Rohan and Catherine Wodeway (nee Rutledge). I'd read about Max, and to a lesser extent, Catherine, in a number of Carlyle's other novels and kept meaning to pick this up. This weekend, I finally did it.


Liz Carlyle was one of the first historical authors I picked up when I started re-reading romance a few years ago after a fifteen year or so hiatus. I rate her. I've blogged about this before so I won't repeat myself but her books are well-researched and avoid that Regency cliche of setting all the action in the smallish setting of the Ton (a shorthand I hate to use except it's so useful that you'll all know what I'm talking about).


My first Carlyle was The Devil You Know, a book I adored and I've enjoyed pretty much every Carlyle book I've read since. My top 3 are The Devil You Know, The Devil to Pay and now, probably, No True Gentleman.


No True Gentleman surprised me. My sense of Max - from the other books he appears in - was that he was a bit grim and bit dull. And indeed, that is how Max does appear to people. But getting the benefit of his internal POV and Catherine's take on him just transformed him in my eyes. I really really liked him. And Catherine is a fab heroine. She's an active character and she drives the plot - and the romance - forward. She's a breath of fresh air as a historical heroine: kind without being passive, forgiving without being a doormat. She recognises when she loves Max and acts on it. Funnily enough I often don't like when protagonists have too much self-awareness about love but it worked with Catherine for me. And I really liked Max's take on Catherine, as this sort of Earth goddess who is everything that is good and productive. If I was to be picky, I'd have to say that I found the detail of Max's difficulties with love and marriage to be under-developed. But that's a minor nitpick given how much enjoyed the romance arc and pace of resolution. Basically, I just loved this book. And when I finished it, I had to then get out The Devil You Know again.


And yes, I read The Devil You Know all over again - at quite a pace - and enjoyed - nay loved - it all over again. Just everything about it. The fact that they're so young (Bentley is 26 and Freddie is 18); the fact that Bentley is one my favourite kinds of heroes - the wounded soul who masquerades as a light-hearted fool; the fact that Freddie cries all the time, something romance heroines don't do enough in my book. (Really, I am going to blog about my glitch with indomitable heroines at some stage). The fact that very little happens. Just lots of H/H action. I love that.

One of the interesting things about TDYK is that it's overflowing with characters Carlyle has already written about, something that can really not work with series. But it worked here. I read TDYK (3 or more years ago now?) and decided I wanted to know all about these people, and now that I think about it, I probably picked each 'next read' in accordance with how interesting those 'secondary' characters seemed to me.

Which is how I came to read a NTG almost last of all, and lo and behold, it turned out to be a bobby dazzler!

Isn't that a pip?