Traitor’s Kiss/Lover’s Kiss
Two Regency-era romantic suspense stories for the price of one! Members of the Pennistan family are the main characters of two novels with interlinked plotlines and characters. Despite the connections between them, these stories stand independent of one another.
Traitor’s Kiss opens with the hero, Lord Gabriel Pennistan, rotting in a French prison in Napoleon’s France. Charlotte Parnell, a prostitute, is hired to return Gabriel to his family in England, where he may stand trial as a traitor to the Crown.
In this story nothing is as it seems. The names change, the plots twists, the circumstances are questioned and even the characters are not who they appear to be. When Charlotte is discovered to be an agent of England, more complications ensue. Love, however, conquers all. At times, the romantic aspects seem like an afterthought. The characters seem as if they don’t like each other for most of the story, and the romantic aspects feel forced.
In Lover’s Kiss, the heroine, Olivia Pennistan, Gabriel’s sister, is found half-frozen in the snowy woods wearing only her tattered chemise. She has been hiding in fear for her life after escaping from kidnappers and is discovered by Michael Garret, a retired soldier and spy from the previous novel, who falls in love with the young woman before he realizes her identity. The characters seem genuinely attracted and care for one another, and that draws the reader in. The plot is not as complex as the companion story but keeps the reader entertained.
While Traitor’s Kiss left me wanting, I enjoyed Lover’s Kiss.
