This masked lord… Lord Jasper, younger son of a marquess, suffered horrible burns fighting in the Napoleonic Wars. He wears a mask to hide his face from the stares and screams and finds comfort in the shadows. Jasper is an exceptional bounty hunter, so when a woman summons him to her deathbed and asks him to find her runaway daughter before she passes away, he doesn’t refuse. Jasper is close to … refuse. Jasper is close to his quarry when he’s knifed by an assailant. Imagine his surprise when he regains consciousness in the arms of the woman he seeks. Except she’s not at all what he expected.
Is not the only one with scars.
On a remote cliff on the sea, Olivia Carlisle calls her five-year-old son in from an approaching storm. But the little boy is more interested in the man he’s found on the trail to their hidden cottage. Olivia fears men and wants nothing more than to leave the injured man where she found him. But his knife wound is severe, and with the approaching storm, she knows leaving him will condemn him to death. As Jasper begins to heal, Olivia acknowledges her attraction to him, even though such emotions terrify her almost as much as returning to London. Jasper must convince her that her only chance at safety is to challenge the man who pursues her. They must travel into the lion’s den—he to face his vulnerability and she to face her worst fears.
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4.5 stars ~
At one point in her life, Olivia didn’t have more worries than wear pretty gowns and attend the most fashionable balls. Now? Now she has more pressing, more important things to worry about, mainly her full of life and curious five year old son Richard. Jasper may have looked scary with that mask covering half his face but his considerate and honorable behavior was enough to bring down the walls Olivia had erected around her heart.
I have to say that Jasper was not exactly how I imagined him, he was way better! I loved the way he patiently let Olivia trust him with her body and hers and her child’s life. He knew the ordeals she had gone through and so he painstakingly let her take the lead when it came to the intimate moments. That’s basically what I love the most about Jasper. Even though he was reluctant to let her love him at first, once he understood her needs he was more than willing to accommodate her, and not just because of his desire for her, but because he understood her and wanted to give her what she needed. If that’s not love then I may be reading the wrong books. He truly was the perfect lover for Olivia.
Olivia, although not the smartest of women in my opinion, was resourceful and level-headed. Perhaps at times she didn’t make the right decisions and trusted the wrong people but she always considered all of her options. It made me really upset how the scheming of others affected Jasper, Olivia, and of course little Richard. That poor child had been so happy for the first five years of his life and all of a sudden his life turned upside down. The villains deserved so much worse than what they got but at least they got some kind of punishment.
To top it all off, we get a little glimpse at the life of Lieutenant-Colonel Benedict Draven! Just as the men he leads, he may appear as a brooding man but if my hunch is correct, just like the other men in his troop, that is just a façade to keep all the feelings from pouring out. In all honesty, I cannot have enough of these men and I cannot wait to read the rest of their stories.
*I requested and received this book at no cost to me and I volunteered to read it; this is my honest opinion and given without any influence by the author or publisher*
I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review. This is the fourth book in the Survivor’s series and one book I have been looking forward to reading. Unmask Me If You Can is Jasper Grantham’s story. We have met Jasper in the previous Survivor books and I believe I speak for many when I say the curiosity surrounding him made many readers look forward to his story finally unfolding on the pages of a book, as well as offering him a chance at true love.
In the previous book, Lord Jasper, the youngest son of the Marquess of Strathern, is often described as wearing a mask to cover the scars he received during the Napoleonic Wars. However, while those are the most visible, they are not the only scars Jasper has. Whereas the years before the wars were somewhat carefree, with him having the world at his feet, Jasper returned from war bearing a lot of guilt following the death of a comrade. Since he adapted to live in the shadows, he became a bounty hunter – one of the best in London.
Due to his profession, Jasper found himself in Penbury, tracking down Olivia Carlisle, the runaway daughter of a Viscount to return her back to her family and ailing mother. Little did he expect this job would change his life! Some distance away from his target, he is accosted and left for dead, to be found by none other than Olivia’s young son. After much debate, Olivia gives him shelter and saves his life, despite having secrets and fears of her own. With time, the Beauty and the “Beast” realize that they both have been wearing masks of some type.
Will they manage to overcome the obstacles thrown in their rocky path?
Ms. Galen manages to snare the readers interest right from the first chapter and to be honest, it becomes quite impossible to put it down. Also, I secretly give the author a few extra points for giving us a truly remarkable and strong heroine who despite her fears and against all odds, persevered to bring a truth to light which indeed besmirched her character.
Jasper Grantham was one of a group of soldiers that we would call special-ops. He survived the war with France and feels guilty for living when others died. His face is badly scarred, and he hides it by wearing a scarf so not to frighten others. He earns his money as a bounty hunter, finding missing people. His current job is to find Miss Carlisle. The Duke of Withernsea wants her found, but Jasper refuses to work for him for reasons you’ll discover. Her father, Viscount Carlisle, has hired him as his wife is very ill and wishes to see her daughter, Olivia, before she dies. Jasper finds her location but is attacked and stabbed on his way to her remote cottage.
Olivia is fearful when her son, Richard (5), comes running in with a boot and tells her he found a man. Jasper was unconscious when they arrived. Olivia doesn’t want him in her cabin but can’t leave him to die. With help from their horse, they managed to drag him to their cabin. As he wakens, he realizes he’s burning with fever, can barely speak but he knows her. He knows if he lives, he’ll protect her and her son. Richard wants Jasper to be his father but settles for being friends. She realizes Richard needs more than being hidden away and she misses her parents. They plan to return to London.
Returning to London, Olivia discovers her father’s betrayal and other things. Jasper gets the information he needs to help her, and Richard. Of course, it’s a lot more complicated than what I’ve written but I won’t ruin this wonderful story. This is my favorite book of the series, so far. The characters are wonderful, but Richard might steal some scenes. I highly recommend it.
Another Survivor finds his HEA! This time with a little forced proximity meets road trip romance meets single parent as the backdrop!
Jasper has been intriguing to me since he first showed up in Third Sons a Charm and now we get not only his story but that of a woman who bravely faces her past for herself, her son, and other women!
Having a seriously scarred hero would be a challenge for most authors but Shana Galen handled the descriptions of Jasper’s physical scars with a frank deliberateness that played beautifully against the exploration of the emotional scars of Olivia, while using the frank curiosity of Richard to dig at some deeper issues as well (plus I’m a sucker for a precocious child!) Unmask Me If You Can also as all the trademarks of a perfect Shana Galen Book; fun banter and snappy dialogue with some serious steam and a touch of danger added in….and that Draven moment, whoa boy is his story going to be good stuff!!!