Much Ado About Rogues by Kasey Michaels (Blackthorn Brothers #3)
Historical Romance
March 20, 2012
Harlequin

Reviewed by May

Favorite Quote: She dug her fingers into him, pushing down hard on his shoulder with her hand as her knee came up swiftly, taking him and his arousal unawares. His knees buckled, his hold on her relaxed, and she was gone, leaving him to bend over where he stood, his hands on his thighs, forcing himself not to black out, or throw up.

“I taught her that,” Black Jack Blackthorn managed at last, speaking to the uncaring stone walls. And then, unbelievably, he smiled. “God, was I even alive these past four years?”

Don John Blackthorn, better known as Black Jack, makes his living working for the crown as a spy, assassin, and all around man who makes problems go away. A bastard by birth, he and his brothers have each chosen unique paths. For Jack, that means avoiding his father’s home, his actress mother, and his two brothers though recent events (detailed in the previous two novels in this series) have caused him to have more interactions with his two brothers.

Bringing up more of his past, he is called on to look into the disappearance of his once mentor and teacher, Sinjon. He has not seen Sinjon or his daughter Tess in four years, not since her brother was killed in a mission gone wrong. As Sinjon is a Frenchman who went to work for the English government long ago he is still watched, and a week ago he vanished.

Thessaly Fonteneau (aka Tess) can’t believe her father disappeared without a trace, and left her penniless and at her wits end to figure out how to find him or to survive. Having been trained by the unusual man in all kinds of things from weaponry to how to search a room properly, Tess is skilled in her own rights. Of course, the one thing she can’t stop are her feelings for her first love – Jack. Though he has been gone four years, her feelings for the man come flooding back as he walks in the door.

It reads well as a stand-alone, the author skillfully weaves in enough information about the past while keeping Jack’s story his own so that it could be enjoyed with or without prior knowledge. Sadly, it didn’t work on any level for me and I will attempt to explain why without any spoilers.

First, the romance. When you start a story with the couple in love, even verbally acknowledging their love, where do you go from there? There was no heat, no chemistry, no tension, and no story arc to follow here. They are simply together, that’s the plan and the lack of tension or true conflict between them causes the relationship to fall to the background and become uninteresting. I will say they got together as often as possible, but that’s not as hot as it might sound. In fact there is a most not-sexy sex scene involving Jack talking dirty to Tess about the image of her being turned on by breast feeding a baby and thinking of him.

Secondly, the plot line. I really liked the plot with her father and how they had to work together to figure out what he might be doing and how they might best put the drama to an end. However, the plot takes unexpectedly dramatic turns involving Jack and his family that had me sometimes confused, often scratching my head, and ultimately unhappy.

Third, we must talk about Black Jack. In the previous novels he is so dark, so haunted, and so closed off. In this book, we were not shown that at all. Yes he keeps to himself but his actions were not in line with the character as I had imagined him. There was no exceptional talents shown, no real darkness to his character, in fact he surprised me with some very sweet and tender moments with another character towards the beginning in a most delightful way. Unfortunately we didn’t get more into that, or why he could have such splits to his personality. Black Jack turned out to be an utterly forgettable man, not the stuff of romance hero hall of fame.

Fourth, perhaps one of the weakest endings and epilogues I’ve read in a long time. It was very unsatisfying and disappointing as it was very much a “and then this happened and that worked out. hooray! The end.” style which I do not like and felt like it could have gone so many other directions.

To be more specific I would have to reveal secrets and plot twists, so I will end my review here. I am torn between a C and a D for this book, but because it did hold me captivated, and there were some specific parts that delighted me, I am reflecting that in my grading.

Grade: C-

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