A hot, action-packed romance!
5
By ProfLeeLee
Anna Harrington, how can you keep doing this to me?!? How can a series with SIX books have me scrambling to pick a favorite?!? Truth is, I can't. Anna's storylines, characters, and attention to detail are just that good. She blows me away every time. I love her books, and if she wrote a microwave instruction manual, I'd read it, too.
Without giving anything away, this is the action-packed conclusion to the Lords of the Armory series. This series--while romance-based--revolves around six men trying to hunt down and stop an anarchist group called Spectre. They are trying to overthrow the British government. In the process of trying to solve these crimes against the crown, these six men fall hopelessly in love with six amazing women, from widow spies, to princesses, to vigilante thieves, and I LOVE EVERY SECOND OF IT.
Firstly, you need to know this about Anna Harrington books: her attention to historic detail is unmatched. Seriously. I've never read a HR author take such care to get the details just right about the time period. That makes the romance, to me, more realistic. This conclusion to the series is the perfect amount of historical accuracy, swoon, action, and HEAT. Clayton and Princess Cordelia are the couple in this book, and I love how the author has them pretty much admit to their feelings AND that it can't go anywhere. One of my favorite parts of this novel was literally their first kiss. In the scene--at the very beginning of the book--someone has tried to kill Princess Cordelia and Clayton stops it in progress. Afterwards, he pulls he aside privately to ask her questions and to get as much information as possible. After a few questions, shaken by the recent event and desperate for compassion, she just reaches up and kisses him. He kisses her back, of course, and then they go on their way. Clayton volunteers to head her protection team, and Cordelia struggles with the life she's supposed to live, and the one that her heart tells her to go for. My favorite thing about the kiss is the mutual acknowledgment of attraction without being overruled by it. It was a very convincing and realistic approach to the bodyguard trope, and I loved it. (If you don't fall in love with Clayton, do you even have feelings?!!)
The Spectre storyline is wrapped up, and the action and mystery in this story is *top tier*. This is another 5-star read for me from Harrington. She really knows what she's doing.
A couple of other things:
1. I've been wracking my brain to try and pick a favorite book in this series. I literally can't do it. I love #3 and #5 the best, but each of them are perfection in their own way.
2. Have you ever read an author and think to yourself "This is 150% what they should be doing for a living"? That's Anna Harrington. She was born to write Historical Romance. For me, that means joining the ranks of Julie Anne Long, Mary Balogh, Grace Callaway, and Lorraine Heath. Harrington is right up there with them.
Overall, I can't recommend this series enough. Bravo, Ms. Harrington!!
**A huge thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Casablanca for an ARC of this book to read and review**