At long last we have the fulfillment of Colonel Eden Maxwell’s story - a character featured in The Black Madonna (Roundheads & Cavaliers Book 1), Garland of Straw (Roundheads & Cavaliers Book 2) and The King's Falcon (Roundheads & Cavaliers ) (Volume 3). If you’ve not been reading the prior books by Stella Riley, you may find my review somewhat spoilerish – so please consider that fact before continuing to read.
In the world of the Roundheads (Parliamentarians) vs the Cavaliers (King's supporters), there were many whose friendships crossed over the “party” lines. Therefore, it's not too surprising that we find Colonel Eden Maxwell living in Cheapside with his younger brother, Tobias, jeweler extraordinaire, and a Royalist friend, Nicholas. Eden and his now deceased wife, Celia, were estranged for several years due to Celia’s choice to live with another man. As we know from past books, Celia blessed Eden with one legitimate son – Jude, and a young daughter – Mary, who is purportedly not Eden’s natural daughter.
This might not have had such severe repercussions, except that Eden had been deeply in love with Celia since he was a young man. Having sworn to himself he would never marry again, he has consoled himself physically with his housekeeper, Deborah – a mutually agreed upon arrangement. Problem is, Deborah is in love with Eden, but he’s not in love with her. To his credit, he decides to end the relationship because it’s unfair to her. To Deborah’s credit, she’s not the clingy type, thus goes softly into the night so to speak.
With this remove from Eden’s life, we, the readers, are obviously interested in exactly who he will fall in love with. Our heroine, Lydia, is a young widow who chooses to do good works with the funds left to her by her elderly husband. She has two businesses – one which hires out-of-work former military men and the other provides jobs for women talented with the needle. Both businesses - although run similar to charitable works are beginning to be profitable.
Coincidentally, Lydia’s young brother, Aubrey, secretly meets with Royalists during a period when Cromwell is attempting to stabilize the government. Eventually Eden’s and Aubrey’s paths cross which brings Eden into Lydia’s sphere. It doesn’t take long for the fireworks to shoot across the sky. In truth, I had some difficulties seeing exactly how Lydia elicited Eden’s interest. Nevertheless, it happens and eventually the story becomes very complicated with a villainous crime lord, Quinn, seeking to bring down Lydia’s business enterprises while searching for “something.” The something isn’t revealed until toward the end of the book although we are given a foreshadowing of what it could be by Mr. Wakefield’s interest in Lydia and his expressed desire to go through Lydia's former husband's papers.
For awhile, we are led to consider that her former husband’s relatives might be the villains. But, about half way through the story, Ms. Riley simply removes all trace of their characters from the storyline without a backward glance. The crime lord, Quinn, causes scores of problems obviously related to the ‘something.” All the above gives Colonel Maxwell many opportunities to present himself as the hero of the day/week/month/year on behalf of Lydia and her interests.
All the while Eden manages to take care of all his military responsibilities in a highly efficient manner, including a trip of several months to Scotland where he is traipsing back and forth across the country in an attempt to bring down Royalist uprisings. Of course in the midst of all the here and there, we are getting loads of historical details which can be somewhat burdensome for those readers who could not give a rip. But, obviously, you wouldn’t be reading Stella Riley’s books if you care nothing about historical events.
At this point, let me say that Ms. Riley is highly capable of weaving romance throughout the historical events which makes her a true historical romance author as opposed to the lighter fare by authors which many of us typically enjoy – where the only historical value comes from the setting and the period in history. Not so with Ms. Riley. After reading one of her books, I always come away with a desire to dig into the past and read facts and statistics for myself so that I might better understand the historical bits and pieces included in her stories.
At the end of the day, however, in my opinion - this book didn’t quite come up to the standard of some of Ms. Riley’s other works. For what it's worth, I felt very little chemistry between Eden and Lydia. Also, I felt that whatever ongoing unresolved issues between the two primary factions – Royalists vs. Parliamentarians were presented in a really mild way compared to the presentations in some of the previous books. For example, when Eden rounded up those who were known to have been involved in secret traitorous meetings, it seemed as though everything was dealt with in a very light manner. Since I’m not a fan of questioning under torture, that’s fine by me, but I had to wonder if things were really that benign? It was almost like round them up and pass out the ice cream and cake while we have a go at them. Then, there was the fact that Eden was always taking time out to “police” the goings on at Lydia’s businesses, even assigning Nicholas there from day one. I could never figure that out. For months on end, Nicholas was involved in Lydia’s business, but as far as I could figure, he wasn’t an employee - simply a friend of Eden's.
I will end with a couple of things. I liked Eden a lot, but he must surely get a medal for being one of the worst “hero” fathers I’ve ever read about. That bugged me to no end – that he could go years and months without ever seeming to care if he saw his children. Obviously from Tobias’s jabs and Eden’s greeting by Ralph when he finally went home, I’m not the only person who felt this way. Plus, he should have manned up a long time ago and helped Mary get past her insecurities relative to his feelings about her birth and life. Poorly done, Eden! And yet for me - this was still a five star read. Last - we have some tidbits about other characters from past stories - Brandon, Venetia, Phoebe, Verity and a few others added further interest to the story. Thank you Ms. Riley for all the hard work you put into this book.
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About the author
A B.R.A.G. Medallion Honoree!
We are proud to announce that LORDS OF MISTULE (Roundheads and Cavaliers #4) by Stella Riley has been honored with the B.R.A.G.Medallion (Book Readers Appreciation Group). It now joins the very select award-winning, reader-recommended books at indieBRAG.
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- Reviewed in the United States on May 21, 2016
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Top reviews from other countries
- Carol CorkReviewed in the United Kingdom on April 2, 2021
Another superbly written story from Stella Riley. Highly Recommended.
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- WendyReviewed in the United Kingdom on June 1, 2016
In my opinion there isn't a rating high enough for any Stella Riley book - FANTASTIC!
