4.5 Stars
It's not easy to gather my thoughts about this book because it's not only the end of this book, it's the end of the series as well, and I'm mourning the loss of Justin and Nathaniel from my life and yeah I know this book was about Pen and Mark but I'm still not over it and I'm glad we got more of these two in the current novel. With all my misgivings along the way (mostly in the first novel, and a bit in this one) it's an AWESOME series and I HIGHLY recommend it start to finish. It has three beautiful romance stories each unique in it's own way as well as a mystery that keeps everyone on their toes (hoping not to lose some..).
I really enjoyed this novel though I was a bit frustrated with Pen. I could understand his position and yet I had a hard time accepting his, let's call it selfishness. He might REALLY want to live his own life the way he wants and these are hard times to try and be transsexual, yet when there are people tortured and killed around you, think again if it's "none of your business" and you would rather sit in your beautiful tight cloths, skirt, long hair spread around your back wearing kohl.. Being an Earl is literally his worst nightmare I get it but I think it took him long enough to realize - (A) Mark literally had no other choice (and it's no spoiler as it this particular scene was portrayed in detail in the previous installment as well. (B) There are enough people on the line, people's LIVES on the line, for him to at least try and work with Mark and Nathaniel and see where this thing could be going.
So let's go back a bit and recap what we were dealing with here from the start. Edmond Taillefer (Clem's half brother) married the young and innocent Emmeline Godfrey. He left her without a thought (or a divorce) later marrying a woman of status having a son with her (making the child and heir illegitimate). Everything start to crumble around him when the vicar who married him to Emmeline starts demanding more money from him to keep the marriage a secret. It wasn't enough that he housed him for all these years in the house Clem was in managing.. Things get pretty messy very quickly when Edmund tries to take charge of the matter but the first book ends with the shocking suicide of Edmund leaving many questions unanswered including if he in fact killed himself or was it staged, but mainly where are the twins Emmeline bore from her short marriage to Edmund,or rather where is the son who will inherit the title of the Earl of Moreton.
Pen and Greta Starling (as they call themselves now) have been hiding in plain sight this whole time. Clem and Rowley have been great admirers of them and both couldn't recommend enough people go see the amazing trapeze performers in the circus in town. You might even remember they took a week off for a while, turns out it was because they heard there are people looking for them and they realized it must be Erasmus and Nestor Potter who run the religious group they were raised in. They loved their mother dearly but she was weak and in the Potter's control and when she accepted the marriage of her daughter to Erasmus it was time for the 14 year old twins to run away and they never looked back. But as we know from the previous installment, there is another enquiry agent looking for them - Mark Braglewicz (on behalf of his good friends Nathaniel and Clem).
When Nathaniel runs with Justin to his town house, he leaves Mark to find the twins and present them to the Taillefer family before anyone else gets to them. Naming the son the heir and being done with it all. Mark actually finds Pen and Greta, or in their real names - Repentance and Regret Taillefer - in less than a week since Nathaniel leaves London but it takes him more than a week to write to him about it. Meeting the beautiful and enchanting Pen - Mark forgets himself for a little and as Pen couldn't care less at the moment about dangers and absurd tales he accepts Mark's company only if it's a personal one (and not professional). As they spend more time together they realize there is something truly special between them. There is an understanding neither of them expected to find. The one handed Mark who manages life without any effort or difficulty - regardless of other people's opinions, and Pen who doesn't feel a man (or a woman) in the body he was born into.
Mark says time and again he is a simply man. He asks questions and he accepts the answers not letting things upset him when it really is none of his business. I guess his radical mother might have a hand in the way he sees things. For him Pen is exactly who he explains himself to be. He can be a man and wear kohl around his eyes, he can be a woman with beautiful long hair and broad and muscular chest. All he wants is for Pen to feel comfortable and accepted. There was something so beautiful about the simplicity Mark sees the world. There is no black or white. There are a lot of colors and all of them are part of this world. There was also something precious and endearing about how Pen sees the world around him and how he realizes the beauty of each and everyone of the people around him is only seen but the person who looks deep inside.
The first part of the book is parallel in timeline to the second installment. The plot basically continues after Mark brings Pen and Greta into the Taillefer gathering (unbeknownst to them) to present Pen as the rightful heir. The shouts begins with Desmond Taillefer, who perceive himself the heir, with his son Phineas on the one side, and on the other Clem and his cousin Tim, with Nathaniel and Justin on their side. Mr. Hapgood the estate's lawyer together with Mr. Ainderby Conyers the earls man of business agree to do their best to determine Pen and Greta's heritage accompanied by Nathaniel and Justin while Pen and Greta find themselves agreeing to come to the family's estate for the time being, together with Clem and Tim.
Things are not happy in the family's estate, especially not for Pen. He might find himself becoming fond of Clem (who wouldn't? the guy a total and absolute teddy bear) and Tim and Greta enjoy their own time together but Pen is mostly lonely. He misses Mark and the life they could have had together yet he still cannot forgive his betrayal in making him face the Taillefer family becoming their true heir. In the circus, in the life he has built with his sister, he could be the person he feels himself to be. Neither a man nor a woman. Sometimes one of them, or the other or both. As the Earl of Moreron he wouldn't be able to be himself. He would have to act everyday to be a person he is not, and for him that's the worst future he can have. Greta tries to be practical about it. They can't preform forever, what if one of them gets hurt? what happens when Greta is married and with child? They don't have any other way of supporting themselves and they aren't doing a great job at the moment as it is.. She doesn't want to make her dear brother do anything he doesn't feel like doing, but she also can't ignore they are offered a fortune as well as status that might enable both of them to live their lives as they choice to. After all, one law for the nobles, another to the regular people..
When there are two more attempts at Pen's life he accepts Mark help and brings him back into his life. Both realizing they need each other and don't want to ever consider a life without one another. But with all the evidence showing Pen is truly the rightful heir Pen makes his own decision. One that he can live with if everyone else can as well. It was the perfect ending really. I thought about it throughout the book at certain times, wondering.. and I'm glad KJ ended the story and the series this way, allowing all our new couples happiness as they would imagine themselves having.
What about the Fogman you ask? Well, I actually knew who he's going to be right from the start. Though I had a moment of doubt it past quickly. I could see why he would want to make the manipulations he did, and how everything fit together. I also enjoyed the way he was caught and handled. I have a few paragraphs highlighted with Justin's interpretations to the whole thing. I can't get enough of this guy!
That's our ending to this wonderful series. More than 3 love stories packed up in one hell of a mystery with bigamy, betrayal, illegitimate marriages and sons, estate affair, fraud, torture and murderers. Yet we end with the happiest note of love and happiness.
More @ Ultra Meital Reviews.
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