Title: The Thief
Author: Bonnie Dee
Publisher: Self-Published
Length: Novel Length
Category: Historical Romance
At a Glance: Bonnie Dee has once again offered up an emotionally engaging romance, compelling readers along through the trials, tribulations, and ultimate joy of two charming characters falling in love.
Reviewed By: Lisa
Blurb: Street hustler Jody plays any role that will win the confidence of a mark. His sights are set on Lord Cyril Belmont, a potential ticket to financial freedom that could change Jody’s life. With a fake investment scheme in mind and larceny in his heart, he sets a snare for the wealthy gentleman.
Cyril Belmont may have a title but he’s as broke as a china plate and on the verge of selling his dilapidated country estate to start a new life in America. When his quiet, solitary life is invaded by a bright, passionate man who sets his head spinning, Cyril is ready to share whatever he has with the electrifying stranger—including the deepest recesses of his heart.
As Jody begins to cultivate inexplicable feelings for the sweet, gentle man who raises rare orchids, he intends to end his seduction and slink back to the ghetto. But then his cover is blown and the budding romance is crushed.
It takes an ocean voyage and several unexpected twists of fate to bring two strangers to a true understanding of each other and the very real bond they share.
Review: For fans of Historical Romance, Bonnie Dee’s name has become synonymous with stories of love and longing in a time when discretion was, indeed, the better part of valor. Her latest novel, The Thief, takes on the hardships and heartaches of two very different men who, through the intervention of a little serendipity and with a generous helping of forgiveness, forge a future together.
In the grand scheme of the opposites attract trope, Lord Cyril Belmont and Jody Smith could not be more different, Jody the unapologetic grifter to Cyril’s nobleman with a direct line to the royal family. When Jody is assigned the task of chumming up to Cyril for the purposes of conning him out of a large sum of money in a bogus investment scheme, he neglected to factor in the idea that he might find Belmont thoroughly charming, lacking anything resembling pretense, as well as unexpectedly earnest in his passion for growing rare orchids.
As it becomes clear to Jody that Cyril is all but entirely skint, on the verge of being forced to sell his family’s dilapidating country estate to help make ends meet, Jody’s own heart and conscience is engage—which he has never experienced before—and he can’t bring himself to swindle the man to whom he’s lost his heart. When they can’t help but give into their physical attraction to each other, the stage is set for dramatic revelations, emotional upset, and broken trust at war with desire that, with a little help from the man who pulls Jody’s strings, tears them apart.
In the end, it’s their desire for each other that prevails and draws them together again and again, helped along by sheer luck as they each set sail, unbeknownst to one another, to attempt to escape their pasts and start anew. That isn’t, however, the end of the conflict they face, and their rawest emotions are once again laid bare as their time onboard ship comes to an end. Their final go at reconciliation comes with no small amount of creativity and Cyril’s unwavering determination to find the man he loves and make things work. In true genre form, love always finds a way.
Bonnie Dee has once again offered up an emotionally engaging romance, compelling readers along through the trials, tribulations, and ultimate joy of two charming characters falling in love. As always, the sense of time and place drew me into the story, and the gift of the happily ever after was delivered in a sweet and satisfying way, with empathy and compassion serving as a guide.
You can buy The Thief here:
[zilla_button url=”http://authl.it/B086JBXPF5?d” style=”black” size=”large” type=”round” target=”_blank”] Amazon [/zilla_button]