Review: A Gentleman Revealed by Cooper Davis

Title: A Gentleman Revealed

Series: Lords of Avenleigh: Book One

Author: Cooper Davis

Length: 343 Pages

Category: Historical, Fantasy

At a Glance: I’m going to leave this review with a so-so rating. There were definitely some great moments in this story: I did have an affinity for Marcus, and Alistair will break your heart, but unfortunately, the problems I had with the story went beyond the characters involved.

Reviewed By: Carrie

Blurb: Alistair Finley has spent years concealing the truth of his illegitimacy. The bastard son of the late king and half-brother to the man who now occupies the throne, Alistair fears ruination. He has never allowed himself love or companionship. Until he meets the handsome young Lord Marcus Avenleigh.

Marcus has spent two years attempting to gain the notice of the king’s shy secretary. Tempting Alistair out of the shadows and into his bed, however, proves a daunting task. The self-proclaimed spinster has made a profession of decorating the wings of every social gala, denying Marcus and every other eligible bachelor a formal introduction.

When Lady Elsevier’s annual ball presents a daring moment, Marcus invites Alistair to waltz. What Marcus can’t know is that his would-be paramour has chosen drink and the life of a lonely bachelor above ever risking his heart, or his king’s own reputation.He’s bound in lies and secrecy, and the past must never, ever be revealed…

Includes a preview of the next Lords of Avenleigh Novel

Review: Lords of Avenleigh is a spinoff of the author’s Noble Pleasures series. The books are set in the same alternate time-period, and many of the characters overlap. These books are written by Dierdre Knight under the pen name Cooper Davis, a pseudonym she uses to write her m/m novels. Knight is best known for her paranormal books, and she has continued that, somewhat, with these historical fantasies. The next book in the Lords of Avenleigh series is A Nobleman Tempted, which is Ethan and Roberts’ story.

Alistair is a tortured character. Shunned by his father, the king, and forced to live as an illegitimate son, he carries scars inside his heart that shadow everything he does. Working as his half-brother’s (King Arend, A King Undone) secretary, his loyalty to the crown is absolute. Arend has always treated him as a brother, even if he never knew that Alistair was a real one. Alistair lives in terror of someone discovering his secrets—something which he has been told that if it happened, he would lose everything in life he loves. He’s a large man, tall and broad shouldered and quite out of place in the Victorian world where men were naturally of a smaller stature. Alistair merely exists in life; he doesn’t live it; he’s too scared; he’s also an alcoholic. Watching Alistair in this book is like watching an oncoming train… you know when it hits it’s gonna hurt, but there isn’t a single thing you can do to stop the impact.

Marcus has spent two years making a study of Alistair. He knows more about the man and his mannerisms than anyone. He’s paid attention to Alistair and sees the heart of gold lurking underneath that gargantuan, shy exterior. Being the fourth son of a Duke has allowed him the leeway to make something of a reputation for himself, only it’s not a reputation he wants to have. Winning the heart of Alistair, for him, means making the man see beyond his reputation. He just never realized the hardest hurdles they would have to overcome would be of a more definitive variety.

Marcus leaned into him, his other hand splayed against Alistair’s chest and whispered, “This line… ‘I did not exist till existence included you.’” He sighed, resting his cheek against the top of Alistair’s head.

Marcus has a tenaciousness to him. A quality he will need in spades as the story progresses. Getting past Alistair’s scars and unearthing his secrets is a long and drawn out process. This is a slow burn book. Alistair has to overcome so many emotional hurdles and conquer demons, both real and imagined, before he can even think about loving Marcus the way he should be loved. The alcoholism is addressed and treated as only it could be in a Victorian setting, and it makes you love Alistair all the more for having to endure the treatment.

I have to admit, I had a hard time buying into the alternative universe that Cooper creates. It’s touted as a place where gay men are allowed to live freely and are even encouraged to marry and live openly. I am a fan of historicals, and the hook (or twist) of reading a Victorian novel where noblemen are allowed to marry noblemen was intriguing enough to me to want to read this book. Unfortunately, that isn’t quite what is delivered. There is still a stigma attached to being homosexual. It is still frowned upon and considered unnatural by most characters in these books. At times it is dangled, hinted at that it might be ok, but then the characters begin to doubt themselves, secondary characters are introduced who frown upon it, and then the premise just gets muddled. I realize this is a fantasy, but it tried to straddle the line between what would have been a realistic portrayal of the time and then introducing snippets of things that were pure fantasy. It didn’t work. The world splinters instead of becoming a whole new entity for the author’s characters to live in. This book would have either benefited from more fantasy, less realism, or more realism, less fantasy.

I also had real trouble with the formatting of this novel. Now, I understand that it was an ARC, but when changing characters, setting, POV, or narration from one paragraph to the next, I would appreciate at least an extra space between the ensuing paragraphs. It is disconcerting as a reader to all of a sudden be inside someone else’s head, or in a different location entirely, without some warning ahead of time. Hopefully this will get cleaned up when the book is published, but if not, you have been warned.

So, all in all this story was a mixed bag for me. I did fall in love with Ethan, Marcus’s brother, and the next story out is his. I’m going to leave this review with a so-so rating. There were definitely some great moments in this story: I did have an affinity for Marcus, and Alistair will break your heart. But, like I mentioned before, unfortunately the problems I had with the story went beyond the characters involved. I’ll recommend it, but with a large grain of salt.

You can buy A Gentleman Revealed here:
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