A Wicked Pursuit
By Isabella Bradford
Publisher: Ballantine
Release Date:
February 25, 2014
Charles Neville Fitzroy, Earl of Hargreave and heir to the
duchy of Breconridge, has decided at the age of twenty-four that it is time for
him to settle down and take a wife. Being a man of decisive action accustomed
to success, Harry, as he is known to family and friends, selects the Honorable
Miss Julia Wetherby, elder daughter of a viscount and one of London’s reigning
beauties, as his bride and sets off for her father’s estate in Norfolk to propose.
Harry is confident that he will be accepted and impatient with Julia’s games
and flirtatious ways that force a delay in his plans. He accepts Julia’s
invitation to a ride with her the morning after his arrival, thinking he will
have the opportunity to ask for her hand, but his plans again go awry, this
time with disastrous consequences. An accident leaves Harry with a broken leg and
even after it’s clear that he will survive the complications of fever and
infection, he faces a long recovery.
Miss Augusta Wetherby, Julia’s younger half-sister, comes to
Harry’s aid when the selfish, flighty Julia flees first the scene and later her
home, incapable of facing the consequences of the accident to which she
contributed. Gus lacks her sister’s arresting beauty, but her intelligence,
kindness, and honor clearly identify her as Julia’s superior in every way that
matters. A favorite with the servants because of her fairness and respect for
them, Gus is the one her father relies on to serve as chatelaine, even as he allows
himself to be manipulated by the beautiful Julia. Her compassion and her sense
of family honor mandate that she care for Harry, but Gus, who is innocent but
not ignorant, is determined to protect her virtue and her heart from the man
who poses a threat to both.
From the moment Harry regains consciousness after his accident, Gus is
there. She is his lodestar when he is overwhelmed by pain and confusion, she is
the preserver of his sanity when he is mired in the monotony of recovery, and she
is the saving grace in an otherwise miserable situation. When Harry still
imagines that he is going to marry Julia, he thinks comfortably that Gus will
be the little sister he’s never had. As the two grow to know each other better,
they become friends who delight in one another’s company. When desire is added
to the mix, they both want more than friendship. But Gus sees herself as a
country mouse unworthy of the brilliance that is Harry, a brilliance she
believes deserves a woman like Julia who will shine with him in London’s brightest
circles. Harry, freshly aware that his injury is one from which he will never
fully recover, thinks Julia deserves a whole man, not a cripple whose
activities will always be limited. Gus and Harry will have to see themselves
through each other’s eyes rather than through their own valuations before they
can claim their HEA.
Bradford introduces her new Breconridge Brothers series with a story of
two likeable characters who grow into love. Gus has lived her life in Julia’s
shadow, but she has been content to do so, relishing the country life and her
role in the household. A quiet heroine who is far removed from the “kickass
heroines” beloved by many readers, Gus is nevertheless no self-abnegating
pushover. She stands up for herself when she needs to do so, and she definitely
has a temper. She also has an innate goodness and a loving heart. I found these
qualities both credible and immensely appealing, and I’m no fan of Griselda
types.
The cover copy describes Harry and his brothers as “London’s
most scandalous rakes,” but the Harry readers meet early in the novel seems a
rather typical male of his class and time—a bit arrogant and accustomed to the
privileges of rank and wealth but basically a decent man who cares for his
family and sees himself following in his father’s footsteps as a faithful
husband and good parent. He rather foolishly imagines that Julia’s beauty and
social status ensure that she possesses all the qualities he desires in a wife,
but even his beguilement is typical. It is the accident that changes him both
because it is the first time he has encountered circumstances that do not
conform to how he sees himself and his place in the world and because falling
in love with Gus awakens him to the qualities he truly values in a person. He
certainly grows in more obvious ways than does Gus during the course of the
story, but even at the beginning, his faults can be attributed to his youth
rather than to his fundamental character.
Although A Wicked
Pursuit is the first book in a new series, it is loosely linked to Bradford’s
previous Wylder Sisters series. Like the earlier series, this one is set in the
Georgian Era. (It takes place eight years later.) The Duke of Breconridge is a
secondary character in the Wylder Sisters series, and the Duke of Sheffield,
Harry’s cousin and close friend and a secondary character in A Wicked Pursuit, is the hero of When the Duke Found Love (Wylder Sisters
3). I enjoy this kind of continuity; I was particularly pleased that Sheffield
was accompanied by his dog.
This is not a book filled with high adventure. But if you
appreciate quieter, character-driven romances, I recommend A Wicked Pursuit. The second
book in the series, A Sinful Deception,
featuring Breconridge’s second son, Geoff and a heroine with a secret, will be
released August 26. I hope it offers
glimpses of Harry and Gus’s HEA in progress. I tried to preorder it, but it is
not yet available for preorder on Kindle.
I have become really
irritated by the assumption in some quarters that a strong heroine has to
conform to a particular image of strength. I think there is room in romance for
heroines who demonstrate their strength in different ways. What is your idea of
a strong heroine?
