From a USA Today Bestselling Author ~ the latest novel in the bestselling 7 Curses of London series!Romance, mystery, and adventure set on the dark streets of London… Only half of Gabriel Sloane’s blood is blue. The other half is black from the coal dust his mother removed daily as a housemaid. Despite his poor upbringing, Gabriel is now a partner in a successful gentlemen’s club, no thanks to … successful gentlemen’s club, no thanks to his father, the Duke of Rushford, who’s never bothered to acknowledge him. When a fire destroys a warehouse in his old neighborhood, Gabriel is the first to offer aid. But his pockets aren’t that deep, and more donations are needed. Appeals to charities go unanswered, driving him to commit a bold act.
Lady Samantha Brown has made the right friends, joined the right charities, and attended the right balls, all with an eye on obtaining a marriage proposal from Dallen, heir to the wealthy Duke of Rushford. But she’s come to realize she doesn’t like the person she sees in the mirror. Nor is she sure she likes Dallen. But the pressure to marry well leaves her with few options.
When a masked highwayman steals both Samantha’s ring and a kiss, she’s determined to get back the ring—but can’t forget that heated kiss. A chance encounter grants her wish, and she finds herself intrigued by the handsome thief. He’s nothing like she thought and sees her in a different light than anyone in her narrow world, making her believe she has the power to change and make amends for the past.
Together, the pair decide to unmask charities that waste donations, only to find a surprising passion in each other’s arms. Gabriel knows the beautiful lady doesn’t belong in his world, and when his half-brother Dallen asks Gabriel to step aside so he can have Samantha, Gabriel must decide how much of a risk he’s willing to take for love.
Though this book can easily be read as a stand-alone, most readers prefer to read the series in order, which includes:
Trusting the Wolfe, a novella
Loving the Hawke, Book 1
Charming the Scholar, Book 2
Rescuing the Earl, Book 3
Dancing Under the Mistletoe, Book 4
Tempting the Scoundrel, Book 5
Romancing the Rogue, a Regency Prequel
Falling for the Viscount, Book 6
Daring the Duke, Book 7
Wishing Upon A Christmas Star, Book 8
Ruby’s Gamble, a Novella
Gambling for the Governess, Book 9
Redeeming the Lady, Book 10
more
If you have been following this series you will definitely remember Lady Samantha Brown as the nasty witch of a fiancée to Tristan Hawke, Lord Adair. She was positively evil to Grace Stannus, the widowed Viscountess Chivington in Rescuing the Earl and when I realized that she was the heroine in this book, I was seriously wondering how Ms. Williams was going to actually pull off the redemption of this lady!!
Lady Samantha is on her way to a house party thrown by the Duke and Duchess of Rushford, where her mother and uncle hope she will snare a proposal from the Duke’s son and heir, the Marquess of Dallen, a proposal Samantha is not sure she really wants. She has changed in the two years since her broken engagement to Adair and she is no longer interested in just wealth and status, she truly wants to be a better person, but she knows her family is counting on her to turn their fortunes around and she feels obligated to comply. They are nearly at the estate when their carriage is held up and the highwayman demands their valuables. She parts with her grandmother’s onyx ring under duress and to add insult to injury, the highwayman steals a kiss! A kiss that she can’t seem to forget, so when she meets the mystery man again at the ball, she agrees to help him if he will return her ring. He agrees and directs her to meet him at the Walthorpe Club.
Gabriel Sloane is the unacknowledged bastard son of the Duke of Rushford. He was raised by his mother in a poor section of London and through hard work has risen above his humble beginnings to become the owner of a successful gaming club. But Gabriel has never forgotten where he came from and when a local tea factory burns down, leaving many people jobless and several injured, he wants to help, when pleas for donations to charities and his father are ignored, Gabriel takes matters into his own hands and dabbles in Highway robbery – but after his encounter with Samantha, he knows that is not the way to help his friends. When she shows up at the club, he returns her ring and explains why he was robbing people. Impressed by his selflessness, Samantha vows to help him.
Samantha wants to help the people affected by the fire and tries first with the charities she works with, but soon learns that they are not really interested in helping. She is also trying to make amends for her past behavior and asks several people, including Adair and his wife Grace for forgiveness. Through these apologies, she learns about the book the Seven Curses of London and is shocked to learn about the corruption in charities. She makes a serious effort to raise awareness and manages to upset Dallen’s mother, jeopardizing her hope of a proposal.
Meanwhile the series ongoing villain Jack McCarthy is at large and is not happy about the attention Gabriel has brought to the neighborhood or the help he is supplying the victims of the fire. Jack wants to have a legit business and needs the property – he offered to buy the buildings but was turned down, leaving him no choice but to take them! Now everything he has worked for could be ruined and there is no way he will allow that.
Gabriel works with Rutland to try and bring down Jack, he also works with Samantha to aid the victims and soon it is clear feelings have developed, but Gabriel has nothing to offer her and she needs to marry for money – but they can’t seem to stay away from each other.
This was a well written, sweet romance that was a very nice addition to the series, I enjoyed the story and I was completely won over by Samantha, I went into this story not believing that I could ever like her and ended up loving her, her transformation was amazing, heartfelt and completely believable. Gabriel was a wonderful hero and very easy to like. The book has cameos by almost all the previous couples in the series, it is very low heat with just a couple of kisses, redemption and a very hard won HEA. I did feel like the story lagged a bit in the middle, but it picks up steam towards the end and sprints to the finish. I was also a little disappointed that there were no details regarding the “end” of the villain – I don’t know if that was on purpose or simply overlooked with everything going on at the end of the book, but I felt the lack. Otherwise, this was a great book and while it is the tenth book in the series, it can easily be read as a stand-alone. I enjoyed the book and would be happy to recommend the entire series!
Redeeming the Lady: A Victorian Romance
The Seven Curses of London Series #10
Lana Williams
https://www.facebook.com/LanaWilliamsBooks/
Release date 02/25/2020
Blurb :
Only half of Gabriel Sloane’s blood is blue. The other half is black from the coal dust his mother removed daily as a housemaid. Despite his poor upbringing, Gabriel is now a partner in a successful gentlemen’s club, no thanks to his father, the Duke of Rushford, who’s never bothered to acknowledge him. When a fire destroys a warehouse in his old neighborhood, Gabriel is the first to offer aid. But his pockets aren’t that deep, and more donations are needed. Appeals to charities go unanswered, driving him to commit a bold act.
Lady Samantha Brown has made the right friends, joined the right charities, and attended the right balls, all with an eye on obtaining a marriage proposal from Dallen, heir to the wealthy Duke of Rushford. But she’s come to realize she doesn’t like the person she sees in the mirror. Nor is she sure she likes Dallen. But the pressure to marry well leaves her with few options.
When a masked highwayman steals both Samantha’s ring and a kiss, she’s determined to get back the ring—but can’t forget that heated kiss. A chance encounter grants her wish, and she finds herself intrigued by the handsome thief. He’s nothing like she thought and sees her in a different light than anyone in her narrow world, making her believe she has the power to change and make amends for the past.
Together, the pair decide to unmask charities that waste donations, only to find a surprising passion in each other’s arms. Gabriel knows the beautiful lady doesn’t belong in his world, and when his half-brother Dallen asks Gabriel to step aside so he can have Samantha, Gabriel must decide how much of a risk he’s willing to take for love.
My review :
When a lady finds a new purpose, will it come against her own life’s expectations…
I confess it has been a while since I have read a Mrs Williams’ work, life went on and I missed many releases.
But I am glad I was able to read this last one in the series, more specifically because it is the redeeming of the awful lady from the first two books I have read.
I do not remember everything but I did not forget the mean girl who delighted in belittling and hurting others.
First, I must say this is an intriguing read as it follows two very opposite people from each side of the fence.
The narrative shows each one’s life, the people they see and the place they go. Why their crossing-paths are always short and out of the ton’s usual places.
Gabriel raised himself from the gutter with only his will and hard work, he knows from where he comes from and where he belongs. Still he knows he has sometime to put aside his own rules when there is a mean to an end in sight.
He is honorable, devoted and resourceful, always eager to help others. Yet he knows his limitations and what society’s will agree to or not.
Samantha, is slowly awakening to the shallowness of her life. She is coming to realize how superficial and empty it is with no true purpose. When she first encounters Gabriel, she sees him for who he appears to be, a highwayman. But it is her first step to a new life, each new meeting frees her from the shackles of her old self.
She has a lot of work to do, she must introspect her past and see her errors then apologize for the mistreatments she put some people through.
It was so gratifying to follow Samantha on her new road, she must face her fears, her social image and confront her past deeds and the image they reflect of herself.
Samantha shows her inner strength with each new phase as she morphs from her spoiled bratty personality to a more invested, involved in true causes new self.
I loved that she really took her life’s course in hand, that it is no external influence that will decide for herself, she changes and moves forward with open eyes.
It is a clean read, even if there are some sensual moments, there is no more than a few mild kisses during their short clandestine meetings.
While I have missed some of the previous stories, this one is a great conclusion as the minx of the beginning redeem herself, thus my 5 stars rating.
I was granted an advance copy by the author and ordered my own. Here is my true and unbiased opinion.
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Another nice story by Lana Williams. This story is about Gabriel who is an illegitimate son of a Duke. He owns a Gentleman club but wants to help a local factory rebuild so people can have jobs. To do this he needs more money, so he becomes a highway man. There he meets Samantha who wants to marry well but is questioning her own actions and wants to change. This is a sweet romance with sweet likable characters, Gabriel and Samantha. Lana Williams writes a story that makes you forget you have things to do. All you want to do is read her books.
I have received a copy of this book for my own honest opinion.
This is one of the books of Seven curses of London. Gabriel meets Lady Samantha, he runs a gambling club, she is expecting a proposal from a dukes heir. Gabriel is the illigetimet son of the duke. This is a book for those that love a sweet romance
Charity Warrior.
Lady Samantha has come to the conclusion that she doesn’t like herself very much and resolves to make amends by apologising to all those she has hurt in the past. She is supported and bolstered by the good opinion of Gabriel Sloane who she first met when her robbed her and her family! Not a good beginning to a relationship one might think but Samantha quickly comes to understand the reason for his actions and develops an interest not only in his cause but the man himself. An interesting and enjoyable romance between two people of different class, upbringing and background. I did find the ending a bit rushed, but loved the epilogue.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book from the author. All thoughts and opinions are my own.