Contemporary Authors

ABOUT ME

Susanne Lord is a writer of Victorian-era romance and author of the London Explorer series published by Sourcebooks.

Originally from Okinawa, off-base and on, she now makes her home in Chicago where she is an active member of Chicago North RWA. When not writing, attending theater or reading, she enjoys hiking the English countryside and visiting historic homes and gardens.

IN SEARCH OF SCANDAL is Susanne’s debut novel. Book two of the London Explorer series, DISCOVERY OF DESIRE, will be released on September 6, 2016. A PASSION FOR PERIL, book three, will be released in 2017.

Representation
Nelson Literary Agency (Kristen Nelson)

Susanne Lord’s Top 5 favorite places in England to travel back in time
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SHARES
By: Joyce Lamb | September 8, 2016 12:01 am
Susanne Lord, whose historical romance Discovery of Desire (London Explorers No. 2) is new this week, highlights five places in England that vividly celebrate the past.

Discovery of Desire by Susanne LordSusanne: My new historical is the story of an English explorer and a shy heroine who sail by steamship from England to Bombay, and back. Seth Mayhew and Wilhelmina Adams make the perilous journey for different reasons: Seth to find a lost sister, and Mina to wed a civil servant stationed in India. (Spoiler alert: Mina’s plans are gonna change.)

In 1851, that journey takes 99 days, with caravan travel across Egypt before getting back on a boat at Suez. In 2016, that journey takes 20 hours. There’s almost no place on the globe we can’t go, and yet there’s one country we’ll never reach. As Hartley famously wrote, “The past is a foreign country …”

If only time travel were possible! Instead, we rely on historians to understand how those foreign people of the past lived. Traveling in England, I’ve caught vivid glimpses of the past in five glorious places and wanted to share them with you.

Carlyle’s House, London

In 1834, Thomas Carlyle leased a house in Chelsea, a less-posh area of London, to escape the more-fashionable crowds. Rather than retreat to the country, the literary superstar enjoyed entertaining metropolitan guests in his front parlor. Or, as many accounts suggest, holding forth as lesser writers, like Dickens and Thackeray, listened meekly.

Nothing from the drab façade hints at the amazing rooms within. The property is as it was when the Carlyles lived there. You enter into a narrow hall, directly before a steep stairwell. The Carlyles kept separate bedrooms on the second and third floors, but the fourth is remarkable: Carlyle’s attic study built without windows, a large retractable “skylight” and double walls to cut back on noise. In the basement kitchen, there’s a narrow bed for a servant. In the Carlyles’ 35 years at the house, they employed 32 different maids-of-all-work. Must have been the worst job if even Victorian-era servants were throwing in the towel. Sad servitude aside, there’s not a more perfect example of a middle-class Victorian home.

susanne-lord-haddon-hall

Haddon Hall, Derbyshire

Arguably the most romantic and brooding house ever if three adaptations of Jane Eyre were filmed there. I’ve never visited a house that had such presence. Maybe it’s because the 11th-century hall just looms the moment you enter its sloping courtyard. The paving stones are so old, uneven and tilted beneath your feet, you enter with your foundation already shaken, and once you enter the perfectly preserved medieval hall, you sense its ghosts have never left.

Chiswick Gardens, Richmond

From Rysbrack’s paintings of Chiswick House, we know the care and attention the Earl of Burlington took in creating one of England’s most gorgeous pleasure gardens. The 18th-century garden is the most serene, and surprising, landscape I’ve ever encountered. I’ve been drawn to the Orange Tree Garden again and again, and set a pivotal scene in my newest book there. The Neo-Palladian house is gorgeous and rightly draws much attention, but the gardens! There’s something magical in how the past comes to life in them.

The Mile Drive, Gloucestershire

Between the villages of Chipping Campden and Broadway, there is a mile-long stretch of grass hemmed in by woods. The old carriage road between the villages is now a hiking trail, and you can easily imagine yourself a Regency-era woman seeing the same landscape to do a bit of shopping. This is still my most exhilarating hike ever, no mountains, no sheer cliffs — just a silent stretch of grass.

susanne-lord-calke-abbey

Calke Abbey, Derbyshire

To reach shy, secluded Calke Abbey, set in the middle of a vast landscape-park, I hiked from the main road, down the long, winding drive, past the gatehouse, into a herd of staring long-horn cattle (not fun), around a brick ice house embedded in the earth and over a rise for my first glimpse of the house.

Calke Abbey is a beautiful ruin of a country house. The stone is dark with age, with moss clinging to its corners. Built in the early 1700s, Calke would house generations of the eccentric Harpur-Crewe family until 1985, when a death tax of 8 million pounds (on an estate valued at 14 million pounds) forced the transfer of the property to England’s National Trust for preservation.

The Harpur-Crewes were both shy of society and intellectually ravenous, so a secluded mansion-cum-museum was really perfect. Their amassed collection of art, books and zoological specimens was left largely intact, and in receiving these treasures, The National Trust decided to use Calke as an illustration of the decline of the aristocratic country house amidst crippling death taxes and the passage of time.

Rather than display the antiques prettily, the only preservation work has been to stop further deterioration. What’s left is a house frozen in time: marble busts shoved in a pantry, stuffed animal heads strewn across a bed, stables filled with crumbling carriages and a gardener’s bothy with 19th-century tools. There is a haunting sadness walking through those cluttered rooms, with your vision split between 18th-century splendor and the hopelessness of a family unable to keep their legacy intact.

About Discovery of Desire:

The one man who’s not looking for a wife …

Seth Mayhew is the ideal explorer: fearless, profitable, and unmarried. There is nothing and no one he can’t find—until his sister disappears en route to India. His search for her takes him to Bombay, where Seth meets the most unlikely of allies—a vulnerable woman who’s about to marry the wrong man.

Discovers a woman who changes his dreams forever …

Teeming with the bounty of marriageable men employed by the East India Company, Bombay holds hope for security for Wilhelmina Adams. But when the man she’s traveled halfway around the world to marry doesn’t suit, Mina finds instead that she’s falling in love with a man who offers passion, adventure, intimacy—anything but security…

About Susanne

Susanne Lord is a writer of Victorian-era romance and author of the London Explorer series published by Sourcebooks. Originally from Okinawa, off-base and on, she now makes her home in Chicago where she is an active member of Chicago North RWA. When not writing, attending theater or reading, she enjoys hiking the English countryside and visiting historic homes and gardens.

Tuesday, March 1, 2016
TBR Tuesday: Susanne Lord's In Search of Scandal

I'm so excited to welcome Susanne Lord to Romancing the Victorians for TBR Tuesday. I read and reviewed Susanne's debut novel, In Search of Scandal, for Night Owl Reviews and thoroughly enjoyed Will and Charlotte's story. Not only was I thrilled to find a fabulous new voice in Victorian historical romance, but I loved her characters, humor, and the emotion woven throughout the story.

From the back cover:

All of London is abuzz with the tale of Will Repton. The lone survivor of a massacre in Tibet has returned to England a hero, but the traumatized explorer has no time for glory. Another dangerous expedition awaits. Nothing will deter him from his quest, and no one will unearth his secret—until Will meets Charlotte Baker…

Now let's find out a bit more about Susanne!

1. What book have you read more than once and still go back to because you love it so much? What keeps you coming back?

LORD CAREW’S BRIDE by Mary Balogh is such a favorite of mine that re-reading the book is like visiting old friends. The ‘friends-to-lovers’ romance between Hartley Wade and Samantha Newman is perfection. Hart has been left with a disability from a riding accident and is a rather average-looking man, but is kind, honorable and quietly confident. Samantha is warm and open-hearted herself, but disillusioned by romantic relationships and wounded from events in her past. I’ll not say anything more lest I ruin this for first-time readers, but if you love a beta-hero, Balogh has created the absolute best in Lord Carew.

2. What convinces you to add a book to your TBR pile?

A wounded, reclusive or misunderstood hero is nearly always a TBR for me. I’m always on the hunt for those heroes like the men in FLOWERS FROM THE STORM by Laura Kinsale, NOT QUITE A HUSBAND by Sherry Thomas and THE MADNESS OF LORD IAN MACKENZIE by Jennifer Ashley.

3. What's the one writing accompaniment you can't do without? (music? tea? coffee? sticky notes? fuzzy slippers? etc.)
This question made me laugh as I wrote an entire blog post about ‘my go-to place to write’ and the rituals I follow in a writing day. Short answer: coffee, and my two writing partners who keep me motivated, inspired and accountable.

4. What's your favorite scene in your most recent book?

The epilogue of IN SEARCH OF SCANDAL is my favorite scene but no spoilers here! Leaving your characters with their own, unique ‘happily ever after’ is always a challenge, but Will and Charlotte were given the ending they truly needed and deserved, while also (hopefully) inspiring curiosity about the other characters in the series.

5. Reveal something you learned while writing your last book (about yourself, your setting, history, etc.)

My father was diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer in March of last year, and passed away in June. I was on deadline for a book, so on all the four-hour Amtrak rides home to visit my parents I was writing my ‘fairy tale set in England,’ as a friend aptly put it. The day my father passed, I was sitting on a cot in his hospital room, writing. In the hard days that followed, I kept writing and when I wasn’t writing, I was reading historical romances because those things soothed me. They still soothe me.

Romance authors and the genre don’t get much respect, but I never knew before how desperately comfort could be needed, and how much can be found in a book, especially a fairy tale. So I learned to be grateful to those who spend hours alone in a room, drinking coffee and typing, to share a story that can provide so much comfort.

DISCOVERY OF DESIRE
by Susanne Lord
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KIRKUS REVIEW

How do two lovers, with nary an aristocratic title or fortune between them, find their happy-ever-after in 1850s Bombay and London?

In this lovely historical romance, Lord (In Search of Scandal, 2015, etc.) presents her protagonists with the challenge of joint penury. Seth Mayhew is a world explorer who finds botanical specimens for the avaricious East India Company but has little to show for it except a cottage in need of repair. His current voyage to India, moreover, is not for work but to search for his missing sister and an orphaned baby. Wilhelmina "Minnie" Adams is one of several indigent sisters and has sailed to Bombay to marry a company bureaucrat in order to save her family from ruin. When she and Seth meet, the chemistry is unmistakable, but the question of how they could be together without ending up hungry and homeless haunts them both. From such untenable circumstances, Lord builds a tender, layered narrative, shot through with moments of pathos and pleasure. When Minnie consoles Seth following his bewilderment at the East India Company’s indifference to his sister’s fate or when he sacrifices his heart for Minnie and her family’s financial security, the novel distinguishes itself from the run-of-the-mill Victorian romance. Lord is even able to present a fairly accurate picture of 19th-century Bombay through descriptions of neighborhoods and the use of dialogue in Marathi; these touches enhance the plot rather than serving as exotic color, always a threat in novels set outside the Anglosphere.

If you like your romance with the sweetness of Mary Balogh’s novels or the anguish of Sherry Thomas’, this is one to cherish.

Pub Date: Sept. 6th, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4926-2353-3
Page count: 384pp
Publisher: Sourcebooks Casablanca
Review Posted Online: June 30th, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15th, 2016

Discovery of Desire
Susanne Lord

Buy This Book
Susanne Lord impressed me last year with her début novel, In Search of Scandal, in which she crafted a strongly characterised, well-developed and angsty romance between a couple who were just a bit out of the ordinary. I have therefore been eagerly awaiting her follow-up novel, in which one of the secondary characters picks up a major plotline begun in the previous story. Seth Mayhew is an explorer and plant-collector who has worked alongside Will Repton (hero of In Search of Scandal) in the past, but was not part of the ill-fated expedition whose fate so haunted Will and during which Seth’s sister, Georgiana, an experienced botanical illustrator, went missing. Will had been about to mount another expedition to China in order to search for Georgie and the baby she is believed to have saved, but Seth insisted on going in his place; it’s his sister who is lost and it’s important that he be the one to find her.

Discovery of Desire opens as Seth arrives in Bombay to meet the guide and translator recommended to him by Will. Seth anticipates trouble from the start; Tom Grant is expecting Will Repton for one thing, and for another Seth’s plans to get out of Bombay and on the road after his sister don’t fit in with Grant’s need to remain in India. Seth wants to begin the search for Georgie right away and is prepared to do anything in order to find her, but it’s very quickly clear that he is going to be up against much more than difficult terrain and the potentially hostile environment he will encounter on his travels. Before he can get going, he has to navigate the political minefield that is the East India Company in order to obtain support and information from the more influential among “John Company’s” employees. Unfortunately, Seth’s outgoing, gregarious manner doesn’t win him many –if any – friends among the men who are, if anything, even more highly conscious of etiquette and social position than they would have been in any London drawing room.

Wilhelmina Adams is one of a large group of “venture girls” who have sailed to India in search of husbands. Her sister, Emma, has a fiancé awaiting her while Mina has a sort of understanding with Tom Grant, and is quite ready to marry him, even if it’s only so she can be near her sister. The problem is that the moment she sets eyes on Seth Mayhew, she recognises a sudden and potentially dangerous temptation to deviate from her purpose. With his six-foot-three frame, laughing green eyes, naturally flirtatious manner and genuine concern for others, Seth is a far too gorgeous a distraction for a woman intent on marrying to provide security, both for herself and her six sisters.

As for Seth, well, he falls for Mina practically the minute he lays eyes on her as she rallies all the other young ladies and tries to bolster their spirits as they get their first sight of the country that will be their home and the strangers who are to be their husbands. But even if Mina hadn’t been there to marry someone else, Seth can’t afford to support a wife and family, and his way of life isn’t one that’s conducive to matrimony. He tells himself she’ll be better off with Tom. Now he just needs to convince himself – and Mina – that it’s the truth.

I admit that I had a bit of trouble getting into the story. It’s slow to start and while Seth and Mina are both admirable characters, it took me a while to warm to them. Seth is a large, open-hearted and affable man who doesn’t always think before he speaks or acts, and at times, he comes across as a bit dim. I found it difficult to equate the man we were told had risked life and limb on numerous occasions, surviving because of his quick wits and intelligence with the Seth that was presented to me on the page. He’s a lovely man, no question; he’s caring and compassionate, genuinely interested in Mina and what she has to say, and he really does want the best for her (even though it might not be what she wants for herself) – but for all his kindness and goodness, his thoughts are often disjointed and he is, for want of a better expression, all over the place.

Fortunately for Seth, Mina is a “managing type”, and determines to help him in any way she can. She does this in quiet, subtle ways, such as involving the other ladies of the “fishing fleet” (the somewhat derogatory name given to the groups of young English women who regularly sailed to India in order to seek husbands from amongst the employees of the East India Company) who in turn ask their new beaux for help, or by simply helping Seth to organise his thoughts and himself a little more. In that way, they complement each other perfectly; they are attuned to one another from very early on and the attraction between them is very well written and developed. The conflict in the story and in their relationship really stems from just two things; Seth’s lack of funds and Mina’s need for security for herself and her family. This is a very genuine concern at a time when there were no financial “safety nets” for people who were not well off. If they didn’t support themselves, they starved, went to workhouses or resorted to illegal activities in order to survive, so a couple who can’t be together because of a lack of money is completely plausible. But … it’s a bit prosaic for a romance novel. I recognise that the line between not enough drama and too much of it is a fine and difficult one to tread, but I’d have welcomed a little more of it here.

The pacing in the last third of the novel picks up and does supply a little more of the drama I’d been craving, as Seth and Mina return – separately – to England and Seth seeks to overcome his money troubles sufficiently to be able to ask Mina to marry him. But this leads me to what is probably the novel’s biggest stumbling block. Seth, while he’s a handsome, kind and caring man just doesn’t cut the mustard as a romance novel hero. He’s not particularly pro-active; all the good things that happen to him happen as the result of the actions of others and I can’t help feeling that had he been left to his own devices, he’d have spent the whole book trying to drum up support and getting nowhere in Bombay. He’s also a bit too self-deprecating and as a result, he’s quick to accept defeat, whether it’s in his financial dealings towards the end of the book or in the way he feels himself unworthy to ask for Mina’s hand, and that’s partly because he lacks the self-confidence to believe he deserves anything better.

On the positive side, I really liked Mina. She’s level-headed and loyal, and I liked the dynamic Ms. Lord has created between her and her sisters, especially Emma who is obviously a little bit fragile. The relationship between Mina and Seth is also incredibly well written; the emotional connection between them is strong and the sense of despair they both feel at having found “the one” only to realise they can’t be together is just as heart-breaking for the reader as it is for the characters.

For a second novel, Discovery of Desire is extremely accomplished and Ms. Lord’s ability to convey strong and complex emotions is what elevates it into the above average bracket. But it’s a book I am appreciating with my head rather than my heart; the writing is terrific, the protagonists are wonderfully supportive of each other and well-matched, the secondary characters are well-drawn and intriguing, the historical background is interesting and I loved the setting. But as I tend to be a hero-centric reader, I can’t get past my disappointment over Seth’s lack of agency – which is why, in spite of all the things the book has going for it, I can’t rate it more highly. I do, however, remain convinced that Susanne Lord is an exciting and talented new voice in historical romance, and will certainly be on the lookout for her next book.

Book Details
Reviewer : Caz Owens

Grade : B

Sensuality : Warm

Book Type : Historical Romance

Review Tags : London Explorers series

Discovery of Desire

Susanne Lord. Sourcebooks Casablanca, $7.99 mass market (384p) ISBN 978-1-4926-2353-3

MORE BY AND ABOUT THIS AUTHOR
Lord builds a charming Victorian-era tale of romantic destiny on a subplot from her novel In Search of Scandal. Shakespeare-loving explorer Seth Mayhew and caretaking “venture girl” Wilhelmina “Mina” Adams are both traveling from England to India. Their journeys intersect when they are met by the same man at the Bombay port. Seth employs Tom Grant to assist in translation as he seeks his missing sister, Georgiana; Mina is looking for the security of a contracted marriage, with Tom as her intended. Seth charms Mina and her sister Emma, but he struggles, even with Tom’s assistance, to acquire actionable information on Georgie’s location from the local men. Fortunately, Mina is on hand to interview their far more helpful fiancées and wives. Despite Seth and Mina’s immediate attraction, their responsibilities to their respective siblings and concerns about financial stability present a significant barrier to their fated blissful union. Lord incorporates entertaining and evocative period language while crafting an original story that transcends the historical-romance formula. The action soon returns to England for a tangled but satisfying finale. Agent: Kristin Nelson, Nelson Literary Agency. (Sept.)

IN SEARCH OF SCANDAL
Image of In Search of Scandal (London Explorers)
Author(s): Susanne Lord
2015 – First Historical Romance nominee
A wounded hero, a feisty, vivacious heroine, intense emotions and a vibrant voice mark Lord as a talent to watch. Readers seeking a powerful and poignant story that satisfies both their hearts and minds are sure to put this high on their TBR pile. The ending will bring tears to their eyes.
Like all of London, Charlotte Baker has read everything about explorer Will Repton’s expedition to Tibet. She is more than fascinated by his journals, she’s obsessed, and once they meet, she is sure he is a kindred spirit. Charlotte has no idea of the burden Will carries or the nightmares that haunt him. He must return to complete his mission to save his sanity. He will not be deterred by his growing attraction to Charlotte. Though betrothed to another, Charlotte defies society’s conventions and pursues Will. She believes her love alone will heal the sadness she sees within his soul. But she must fight his demons and compel Will to face the horrors of his past if there is to be any hope for the future. (SOURCEBOOKS, Dec., 416 pp., $7.99)
Reviewed by:
Kathe Robin

In Search of Scandal

Susanne Lord. Sourcebooks Casablanca, $7.99 mass market (416p) ISBN 978-1-4926-2350-2

MORE BY AND ABOUT THIS AUTHOR
Brooding botanist and adventurer Will Repton and common-born socialite Charlotte Baker take center stage in this warm and complex Victorian romance. Will, recently returned to London after a six-year trip in China with a dire ending, manifests himself as the man of irrepressible Charlotte’s romantic dreams when he pays a call on her brother-in-law and inadvertently gets presented among her suitors. His determination to fund a new expedition and return to Tibet, driven by a secret purpose, is at odds with her belief that they are destined to be together. More visits with her brother-in-law become a screen behind which Will informally courts Charlotte, displaying a depth of perception and understanding that her other beaux lack. Readers may become impatient with the obstacles between the lovers (which could be removed with a frank emotional discussion) and a bit of a kitchen-sink approach to the subplots, but the warmth of their romantic and intellectual connection, as well as the strongly drawn supporting characters, make this novel worth the reader’s while. Agent: Kristin Nelson, Nelson Literary Agency. (Dec.)

4½ Stars
Author: Susanne Lord
Review by: Christy Carlyle
Genre: Romance
Tags:
* Rom: Historical
Debut Title
Publisher: Sourcebooks Casablanca
In Search of Scandal
London Explorers, #1

I simply adored Susanne Lord’s IN SEARCH OF SCANDAL. To say her writing is fresh feels like too trite a description. Her voice is more than fresh. Lord’s characters come alive on the page. They are funny, complicated, flawed, and utterly charming. This story is a true romance, with all other plot elements relegated to the background, allowing the relationship between Will Repton, famous explorer, and vivacious Charlotte Baker to take center stage. In a genre glutted with dukes, it was especially pleasurable to encounter a hero who is simply an extraordinary man, one who’s seen and experienced more than most. Will is a delicious hero—wounded, haunted, resistant to emotion, and yet open to experience enough to find the overly exuberant Charlotte Baker absolutely fascinating.

Rather than a relationship full of antagonism, I tend to prefer romances in which the couple cannot resist each other and yet do and must, either because of circumstance or emotional hang-ups. Despite Charlotte’s initial hopes, this hero and heroine do not rush into love. Their awkward moments, their tentative flirtation, their stops and starts, and the challenges they face together comprise one of the most enjoyable journeys I’ve taken as a romance reader in a very long while.

Lord does an excellent job creating a cast of lovable secondary characters and a sufficiently menacing antagonist, providing both moments of humor and a believable conflict for Will and Charlotte to tackle. The most important tensions in the story, however, are emotional, and emotion is where Lord’s writing truly shines. From the very first page, I felt Will’s awkwardness and Charlotte’s youthful energy. In every scene, Lord lays her characters’ emotions bare, and it made IN SEARCH OF SCANDAL compulsively readable and one of my favorite romances I’ve read this year.

IN SEARCH OF SCANDAL took me on an emotional adventure, with moments ranging from sweet to sexy, funny to heart wrenching. I wholeheartedly recommend this debut Victorian historical romance, and I can’t wait for more from Susanne Lord.

In Search of Scandal (London Explorers #1) by Susanne Lord
Jan
7
in search of scandal
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A DARING EXPLORER
All of London is abuzz with the tale of Will Repton. The lone survivor of a massacre in Tibet has returned to England a hero, but the traumatized explorer has no time for glory. Another dangerous expedition awaits. Nothing will deter him from his quest, and no one will unearth his secret-until Will meets Charlotte Baker.

IS NO MATCH FOR AN ADVENTUROUS HEART
Vivacious Charlotte Baker also has a mission-to find a man whose bold spirit matches her own. When she meets Will Repton, she immediately recognizes him as her soul mate, and she’s naively willing to turn her back on the rules of propriety to ensnare him. Will is torn between his fascination with Charlotte and his vow to finish his quest. He knows what it is to risk life and limb-but what if his most perilous adventure doesn’t lie across an ocean, but within his own lost heart?

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Publisher and Release Date: Sourcebooks Casablanca, December 2015

RHR Classifications:
Time and Setting: London, 1850
Genre: Historical Romance
Heat Level: 2
Reviewer Rating: 3.5 Stars

Review by Sara
My thoughts about In Search of Scandal are somewhat difficult to put into words. I enjoyed the book. There was definitely a romance that developed between the main characters William Repton and Charlotte Baker and I do feel that love became a foundation for Will to begin rebuilding his life after tragedy. Where I run into problems is that for a large portion of the story the actions of both Will and Charlotte towards one another are anything but loving.

It is 1850 and the English public is fascinated by the reports their countrymen send back about the mysterious Far East. Working for the East India Company, plant hunter William Repton has become a semi-celebrity back home and earns the nickname “Chinese Will” for his exploits while in this foreign land. Unfortunately for Will, what the public has read of his time in country is far different from the realities he faced. Tortured by the memories of his expedition’s grizzly demise at the hands of a hostile Tibetan tribe, Will returns to England a broken man with a desperate need to return to Tibet and finish one final task.

To Charlotte Baker, the adventures of Chinese Will have proved utterly enthralling. She has become infatuated with the man behind the stories and without ever meeting him, she feels that he would be the perfect husband for her. With her elder brother and sister currently out of the ton’s good graces, she is certain marriage to Will and his popularity could elevate them all back into society. Their chance meeting at her brother-in-law’s home seems like kismet to Charlotte who believes that William will fall madly at her feet just as so many other men in London have done since her debut. She is quickly thrown out of her fantasy when the William Repton she meets is reserved, uncomfortable about his experiences and definitely not interested in a relationship with her.

The attraction that Will feels for Charlotte is substantial; however he knows that at the moment he is in no position to offer her anything. Even the idea of a friendship with the beautiful and vivacious young woman would serve as a distraction to his goal of securing funds to return to Asia. Charlotte tries to give up her ideas of becoming Mrs. Repton, even encouraging the attentions of viscount, but the shadow Will casts in her mind is too big for any man to escape. She is also heartened by the little bit of attention Will pays her when he visits her brother-in-law. Their companionship leads to a forced marriage that requires both Will and Charlotte to sort through the murkiness of their feelings and expectations verses their realities.

The tone of the story is much darker than the pretty cover or description would have you believe. Will’s tortured memories of his friends’ deaths and the survivor’s guilt he feels trap him within his thoughts of returning to Tibet. His heart was so wounded by a single choice he made that it has closed him off from feeling anything but remorse and shame at being recognized for his accomplishments. Will’s pain distorts the fondness he begins to feel for Charlotte, making him feel it’s an anchor holding him back from accomplishing his mission. In truth, their relationship begins to heal his emotional wounds and allow him to move on with his life. As he slowly finds some peace while getting to know Charlotte his fears move past what has happened before and he focuses on where he needs to be for his future.

Charlotte is a harder character to empathize with. She has created such an expectation in her mind about Will that for a good portion of the story I didn’t feel like I could trust her whenever she said she was “in love.” Charlotte seemingly has blinders on when looking at Will, only seeing the man of reputation and not the true individual struggling to redefine himself after surviving tragedy. There are many instances where I feel Charlotte was manipulating the brittle friendship that she and Will had; creating castles in the air that she would be the social savior of her family, get the most sought after man in England, and be happy, with no compromise. It was only in the final beats of the story where I truly felt that Charlotte understood what true love was.

In Search of Scandal sometimes feels incomplete or in need of a prequel story to better flesh out Charlotte’s family dynamic and why she was so obsessed with Will. I was drawn into the struggles Will and Charlotte face in getting past their clouded perceptions and forming a real bond. Their story becomes an emotional roller-coaster with a few drops that made me ache for both of them. Being such a character driven story, I perhaps needed a bit more from both protagonists to convince me that their love was enduring. Overall however, In Search of Scandal is a good story and certainly enjoyable enough for me to keep my eye out for the next book of the series.

DISCOVERY OF DESIRE
Image of Discovery of Desire (London Explorers)
Author(s): Susanne Lord
Adventure romance fans expect Lord to provide a highly satisfying story that perfectly merges an exotic locale with history, passion and roller coaster exploits. She delivers just that. Continuing her explorer series with an emotional romance with unforgettable and unconventional characters, she captivates readers and ignites their imaginations.Get set for a wonderful journey to India and beyond.
This installment of The London Explorers picks up exactly where the previous story left off: Seth Mayhew arrives in India to search for his missing sister. On board Seth’s ship is Wilhelmina Adams and 40 venture brides, women claimed by men of the East India Company. This is Mina’s chance for security. When she mistakes Seth for her betrothed, she’s distracted from her dream of an uneventful marriage. Unable to make headway in his search, Seth realizes he needs Mina’s help and her influence among the brides. Mina quickly realizes she’s in danger of losing her heart to the rugged adventurer. She sees he’s passionate, honorable and a man worth loving. He can’t resist teasing and tempting Mina and heat that simmers between them. As their investigation takes them from Bombay to London, Mina and Seth discover love is worth any risk. (SOURCEBOOKS, Sep. 384 pp., $7.99)
Reviewed by:
Kathe Robin