Title: Proper Scoundrels
Author: Allie Therin
Publisher: Carina Press
Length: 309 Pages
Category: Historical Romance, Mystery/Suspense, Paranormal
Rating: 5 Stars
At a Glance: Proper Scoundrels has come in at the eleventh hour and effortlessly propelled its way onto my list of favorite books of the year.
Reviewed By: Lisa
Blurb: Their scandalous pasts have left them wounded and unworthy—and hopelessly perfect together.
London, 1925
Sebastian de Leon is adjusting to life after three years spent enthralled by blood magic. The atrocities he committed under its control still weigh heavily on his conscience, but when he’s asked to investigate a series of mysterious murders, it feels like an opportunity to make amends. Until he realizes the killer’s next likely target is a man who witnessed Sebastian at his worst—the Viscount Fine.
Lord Fine—known as Wesley to his friends, if he had any—is haunted by ghosts of his own after serving as a British army captain during the Great War. Jaded and untrusting, he’s tempted to turn Sebastian in, but there’s something undeniably captivating about the reformed paranormal, and after Sebastian risks his own life to save Wesley’s, they find common ground.
Seeking sanctuary together at Wesley’s country estate in Yorkshire, the unlikely pair begins to unravel a mystery steeped in legend and folklore, the close quarters emboldening them to see past the other’s trauma to the person worth loving beneath. But with growing targets on their backs, they’ll have to move quickly if they want to catch a killer—and discover whether two wounded souls can help each other heal.
Review: If there’s such a thing as a meet-disaster, then Allie Therin has written one that’s tension-laden perfection in Proper Scoundrels. Fans of the Magic in Manhattan series have plenty to celebrate in this spin-off novel that carries on with the mayhem and magic when readers are swept away to England with Sebastian de Leon and Wesley, Lord Fine, in their search for a killer wreaking havoc and dispatching of his victims in entirely wicked and frightening ways.
Therin captures the 1920s so beautifully, in just enough detail to transport readers back in time and allowing us to become absorbed in the historically significant events. In this case, the climactic scene where everything rides on the survival of a multitude of unwitting spectators happening at the Paris world’s fair, and the villain monologuing while the fate of so many, including Wesley and Sebastian, hangs in the balance, is anxiety-inducing perfection. I’m not sure the anticipation of the pivotal moment when good confronts evil could have worked my nerves any harder, and I loved how absorbed I was in that moment. But that was only one moment among many when I was fully and utterly captivated by this story.
The de Leon family has a long and storied history as guardians of magic, and Sebastian’s history in particular lends itself to some poignant moments as he struggles through the aftermath of the events that led him to New York City and propelled him into the act of treachery that first delivered him into Wesley’s proximity. It was a situation that is seared into Wesley’s memories. Even if he never saw Sebastian’s face, he’ll never forget his voice, and it’s that memory that dominates when Wesley encounters Sebastian for the first time in England. That was the meet-disaster, but extenuating circumstances being what they are—predominantly that Wesley has no idea magic exists and that he’s come in close contact with a danger he has no real-world concept of—Jade and Zhang are thankfully there to help negotiate a path to Wesley not only believing magic exists but slowly coming to realize Sebastian is not evil incarnate.
An incident that drives Wesley and Sebastian together and delivers readers that forced closeness we love is the accelerant on the spark of attraction and begins the journey to not only identifying a killer but to discovering where the origins of that killer’s extreme and improbable power lies. Therin lays this story out in a perfect marriage of romance and action and suspense, and not only that but also crafts a union of opposites that allows Wesley to be just that little bit softer and offers Sebastian leeway to forgive himself for his past. The moment Wesley finds common ground and empathizes with Sebastian in something like a shared experience was a poignant foundation on which to build their relationship.
Proper Scoundrels has come in at the eleventh hour and effortlessly propelled its way onto my list of favorite books of the year. I’m not sure if it’s due for a sequel, but I’d love if Allie Therin gave us more from this world.
You can buy Proper Scoundrels here:
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