Review: The Gentleman’s Gentleman by Samantha SoRelle

Title: The Gentleman’s Gentleman

Series: His Lordship’s Realm: Book One

Author: Samantha SoRelle

Length: 319 Pages

Category: Murder Mystery, Historical Romance

Rating: 5 Stars

At a Glance: Samantha SoRelle does so many things right in The Gentleman’s Gentleman that it’s hard to pinpoint what I loved most. Fans of the author’s His Lordship’s Mysteries series (which I most ardently recommend) will love the mystery as well as Jarrett and Gil’s romance.

Reviewed By: Lisa

Blurb: Despite his noble family, a life of idle indulgence has never suited Gil Charleton. Fortunately, working as the Earl of Crawford’s estate manager requires the same caution, care, and charm he already uses to hide his true desires. On a discreet visit to a pub catering to men like himself, he’s dismayed to see the earl’s imprudent valet. At least the reckless, flirtatious Jarrett doesn’t see him in return.

Jarrett Welch takes any chance to have a little fun—or a lot of fun. But when a man he flirted with winds up dead, he can’t give his alibi. After all, that kind of fun between men carries the same sentence as murder.

Gil knows Jarrett is innocent, but it’s his own life on the line if he comes forward. The only other way to save him is to find the real killer before their shared secret can be revealed.

Working together to clear Jarrett’s name, the attraction between them becomes impossible to fight. But the more the mystery unravels, the more it becomes clear that one of them will have to choose which is more important: his love… or his life.

Review: Samantha SoRelle does so many things right in The Gentleman’s Gentleman that it’s hard to pinpoint what I loved most. The romance, the murder mystery, the suspense, the family tensions, the deception, and the atmosphere are all rendered so vividly. The secret Gil Charleton can’t share for fear of losing everything—his life included—influences every part of the story. And the reckless and cheeky Jarrett Welch is in the middle of it all.

Jarrett gets himself in a spot of trouble when he propositions the wrong man, and that man later turns up dead. Jarrett is arrested for perpetrating the crime even though there’s no evidence he’s the killer, not to mention the logistical inability for him to have been anywhere near the scene when the murder occurred. Unbeknownst to Jarrett, he does have an alibi. Unfortunately for Jarrett it’s Gil, who is unwilling to step forward and provide it because to do so would place his own neck in the hangman’s noose. Patronizing a bar where men seek the company of other men is a crime of equal consequence to murder in the eyes of the law.

The Gentleman’s Gentleman takes great advantage of the forced proximity trope when Gil sets out to prove Jarrett’s innocence, not by his own confession but by dogged investigation. He begins with walking into the gaol and capitalizing on his familial connections to walk out with Jarrett in tow. As they work to piece together the evidence and find a motive, not to mention the formidable task of discovering the victim’s identity, the time spent with each other serves as time to get to know each other beyond Gil’s not-so-flattering opinion of the unrepentant flirt that is Jarrett Welch. If there is such a thing as romantic chemistry, Jarrett and Gil have it in abundance, and the tenderness that builds between them is rendered so beautifully.

Fans of SoRelle’s His Lordship’s Mysteries series (which I most ardently recommend) will recognize Jarrett and Gil as role players, Jarrett being Alfie’s rather unskilled valet and Gil his thoroughly proficient estate manager. Having said that, I believe this story reads well as a standalone for both the mystery and the romance. Discovering the identity of the killer sends shockwaves through the lives of these two men, and also provides the catalyst for their lovely happy ending.