Trigger warning: It’s not shown, but we do know that one of the woman in this book is being physically abused.
Wow. This one and the next ended up being my favorite out of this series. By the third book Garwood has gotten her groove. I absolutely loved the characters of Sara and Nathan. We also get callbacks and scenes with prior characters Jade and Caine as well as mention of [spoiler] Colin. Who knew a book that starts with a child bride ceremony (seriously you guys) would end up showing us two characters you can’t help root for.
“The Gift” follows Nathan, who is the Marquess of St. James. Nathan when he was a teen married Sara Winchester (she was 4) due to some ongoing mess between the two families. The then King George insisted on the marriage because he thought this would make them all get along (spoilers…it did not). Fourteen years later, Nathan is ready to “claim” his wife. The book follows as the two of them get to know each other, and Sara realizes (slowly) how horrible her family is and what she is willing to do, to make sure Nathan’s family’s scandal is not revealed.
I absolutely loved Nathan. Seriously. The whole book was him being grumpy as hell and saying “Dammit Sara” to the point that when it’s pointed out it’s an endearment in a funny scene was hilarious.
Sara though I can see why she bugged a lot of readers. She is naïve as anything. She expects Nathan to “save her” and keeps doing things at times that will drive you up the wall. But by the end, I really did like her transformation into a heroine that was not going to just sit back and let her family take something away from her that she wants.
The writing in this one was gold and funny as hell. Seriously, the beginning showing the wedding with “Mad” King George is one for the books. Also there are so many other hilarious scenes I just fell out. Towards the end when Nathan is looking all over London for Sara and runs into his sister’s home (Jade) and runs about and about was just awesome. And let’s not forget the fight during the waltz. I am really amazed no one has thought to bring this series to life via Netflix or some other streamer. It would be fantastic IMHO.
No issues with the flow in this one, I was honestly stunned how fast this book flew by compared to books # 1 and #2 in the series.
The ending was great.
I also read this for Cannonball Read 14 Book Bingo. This fits the following bingo circle:
- Scandal: Scandalous content; scandalous cover; a story about a scandal.
- There’s a huge scandal in this one related to Nathan.
