Twist of Honor by Karen Welss

TITLE: Twist of Honor
AUTHOR: Karen Welss
PUBLISHER: Awe-Struck E-Books
LENGTH: Novel (roughly 94k)
GENRE: Historical romance
COST: $4.99

Puritan widow, the Countess of Cranbourne, finds herself pursued relentlessly for her wealth. Unwilling to remarry, she simply wants to live her life in peace, but her impoverished suitors have different ideas. One in particular enlists the aid of a poor, illegitimate relation to kidnap the Countess to force her hand. Kit Fitzgeorge, a disabled soldier returning to England with his ill daughter, feels like he doesn’t have a choice in the matter but to take the job. A chance encounter has the Countess offering him a position as a bodyguard, but instead of making his job easier, it only makes things harder for Kit. Because that’s when he falls head over heels for her, and finds himself torn between his love and his responsibility.

I’m not sure if it’s the season or my mood or what, but I have been very uninspired by the new releases I’ve seen of late, so I’m delving into my TBR pile when I find myself in search of something new to read. There have been some real gems – as well as some real duds – but because I know I tend to review a lot of mediocre books, I’m trying to focus on the really good stuff to share when I find it.

Twist of Honor falls into that category of books I don’t expect to love. I find a lot of English history dull as dishwater – hell, I find a lot of history dull as dishwater – so historicals have to work a little harder for me to enjoy, sometimes even to finish. For some reason, this book surpassed both of those and leapt straight into keeper status. Oh, the history is still there – this is set in Restoration England, with all the schisms and debauchery of the classes and religion – and there are a couple of long-winded passages about period detail that make me yawn. But it works because of the truly fantastic characters, sympathetically drawn and so realistic I finished the story feeling like I’d been spying on people I knew and loved.

Antonia, the Countess, leads a simple life. The daughter of a merchant, she married into nobility through her father’s wealth, but finds herself widowed very young when her older husband dies of smallpox. She is left scarred as well, which doesn’t end up deterring the suitors determined to get their hands on her money. What I loved about Antonia was the fact that she was both intelligent enough to realize the predicament she was in and to do what she could about it, without losing the strong spirit bolstered by the tenets of her faith. She’s a good person without being too good, and I sympathized with her plight even when I knew half her plans were being shot out of the water.

Then there’s Kit. Ah, Kit. There was such a possibility that he could have been a laughable character. I mean, really. He’s a disabled soldier, with a bad hip, and yet fights brilliantly a good portion of the time. He’s a widower, still vastly in love with his dead wife when the story opens, with a small sickly child. He swallows his pride to accept a job he finds distasteful from a relative he doesn’t respect just to ensure his daughter has a future. So many opportunities to go overboard, and yet, at the author’s careful hand, he never does. We feel his pain when he’s fighting, know how much he’s pushing himself. We feel his conflict between selfish pursuits and what he knows he has to do for his daughter. Kit ends up being a man to admire, not mock. And admire him I did.

The plot device is common enough, but the story twists into the King’s court in such ways to keep it seeming fresh. The sense of realism is compounded by the gentle pace of the story; these characters don’t go too far too fast, so if you’re looking for a quick romantic fix, you’re not going to find it here. You’re going to fall in love with the characters long before they fall in love with each other. And that only made me fall in love with the story even more.

Readability	9/10 – Considering how much I hate history lessons, I couldn't stop reading.
Hero	9/10 – Rich and human, his fallibility is exactly why I loved him so much.
Heroine	8/10 – Some of her motivations annoyed me, but that’s a period thing and not any fault of the character or author.
Entertainment value	9/10 – In spite of an overused basic premise, the romance and machinations of the plot sucked me in.
World building	9/10 – With my history not as good as it could be, I was left with some questions that should have been answered, but otherwise, absolutely brilliant.
TOTAL:	44/50