The Notorious Lord Knightly by Lorraine Heath
The Chessmen: Masters of Seduction #2
Historical Romance
June 27, 2023- Avon
Review by Melanie
I am a sucker for a second chance romance and for a revenge plot done well and Lorraine Heath’s newest achieves one of those very well and the other one to varying degrees of success.
The FMC of the book, Miss Regina Leyland, has forever lived her life on the outskirts of the English nobility. Born as a result of the extramarital love affair between an earl and an actress, she had never been welcomed into the folds of her father’s other family or into London’s most exclusive ballrooms or drawing rooms. However, things had changed after her father had insisted on a season for her and she found herself in love with and engaged to the Earl of Knightly. However, when he shows up on their wedding day only to tell her he cannot marry her, she finds herself once more at the bottom of the London social stratosphere, humiliated, hurt, and abandoned.
Cut to 5 years later and Miss Leyland now harbors multiple secrets.
- She is the anonymous author of a titillating new book that lays out in sordid details the beginning and end of her tumultuous and ill-fated relationship with Knightly. Though she doesn’t name him explicitly and takes fictional liberties with aspects of their story, there is enough there to make the whole of London society wonder exactly who this story is about and who wrote it.
- She is a single mother, hiding her illegitimate daughter from public scrutiny, determined that her own child should not grow up forever relegated to the outskirts of society like she herself had been. She wants legitimacy and acceptance for her daughter, all the things she never had. And to that end, she’s hunting for a husband, titled and venerable enough to allow her and most importantly her daughter respect and acceptance into the highest echelons of London’s society.
I loved the second chance romance aspect of this book. At first, Knightly is very much the cad, leaving Regina at the altar with nary an explanation as to why beyond the sudden opinion that they just wouldn’t suit. She is left in tears, heartbroken and humiliated, and even though he makes it clear to all that she is the one who called it off, it is she who bears the brunt of the consequences while he is congratulated for having made a fortunate escape. The true explanation for why he did what he did comes much much later in the book and while I won’t spoil it, it is not a huge shocker. The signs are all there and it is also evident from Knightly’s actions in the present day that he clearly still loves Regina.
The book cuts back and forth between the origination of their relationship to the moment he ended their relationship to the present day, five years after their aborted wedding, when Regina is trying to exorcize her past and her memories of Knightly, while also attempting to secure acceptance and legitimacy for her daughter.
If there is a weak spot in the book, it’s the revenge aspect of the plot. Regina writes the book to find the closure she never got from her relationship with Knightly but also to seek vengeance on the man who broke her heart but never paid a price for it, never seeming to suffer a single ounce of consequence for his actions. The book is meant to make society question the identity of “Lord K” and put Knightly in the indefensible position of having to answer for his past behavior. And while there are some in society who make it clear to Knightly that he is not to come near their daughters, the book doesn’t do much in the way of making Knightly a pariah as much as it blows back on Regina. As the anonymous author, it’s actually Regina who is at risk of facing greater consequences. Her father, formerly her protector, is dead, and his son, the new earl, makes it his mission to reveal Regina as the anonymous writer of this torrid book, thus enabling him to revert the trust their father set up for Regina back to him. A revenge plot fails if the person seeking revenge has more to lose than the person they’re getting revenge on.
One of the things I found interesting about this book is the way Lorraine Heath addresses the issue of the actual book within the book, My Secret Desires, A Memoir. There are parallels to current times with a group of self-serving, privileged, and powerful men blustering loudly about the improper nature of this book and trying to have it banned and the anonymous author brought to justice for writing such filth. However, there are more supporters, mostly women but also a few men, all of whom have read the book and judged it harmless, a titillating tale of a woman’s sexual awakening at a time when women were given zero autonomy over their lives, sexual or otherwise.
One other minor complaint I do have is that I wish there had been more of a grovel scene when the truth is revealed or even leading up to it. For much of the book, Knightly essentially manipulates Regina into spending more time with him under the guise of helping her land a respectable husband. And while his intentions to help are genuine, there’s a self-serving aspect to it that diminishes the altruistic nature of his intentions. And when the truth is revealed as to why Knightly refuses to marry Regina on their wedding day, I just wish he’d expressed a little more remorse about his actions and how they impacted Regina. (Though, I suspect this is more of a “your mileage may vary” situation, I just need the grovel to be deeper and it just wasn’t in this book).
Overall, I really liked the two characters, definitely loved Regina and the way she stood her ground and protected herself and her daughter. I wished for a little more in the way of groveling from Knightly but the romance was solid, the sex scenes were hot, and the HEA was well-earned.
Grade: B+
Content Notes: past spousal abuse, adultery, off-page death of family members, toxic family relationships
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