CBR15passport recommended
‘You can address me by my preferred title: you idiot.’
I’ve seen references to “the puppy cannon” amongst romance novel fans here on CBR over the years. I never really investigated what it meant and in my head, for some reason, it was “the puppy canon,” like some kind of reference to a specific sub-genre of romance novel. It is not. It is truly the puppy cannon, and if there were to be some kind of puppy cannon canon, I would be all over that shit. Suffice it to say that I am continuing to absolutely love the Brothers Sinister series and even though I have said this about the last two books in the series, this one is my favorite! Free, Edward, their backgrounds, their love story and the historical backdrop for it are all outstanding. Of all Milan’s characters in this series, Free and Edward are the two I would want to know and hang out with.
Free is Fredericka Marshall, younger sister to Oliver (The Heiress Effect) and owner/editor of a newspaper for women, Women’s Free Press. Free is the Nelly Bly of her time — going undercover and exposing corruption and injustice while promoting women’s rights. She and her newspaper have caused trouble for some members of the nobility and have won her powerful enemies, including the Honourable James DeLacey, who will soon become Viscount Claridge and, as such, even more dangerous to Free. Edward Clark is a forger, a liar and an all around scoundrel. He is also Edward DeLacey, James’ older brother and the rightful Viscount Claridge. Edward has lived in Europe for the past decade, initially banished by his father as a punishment for not showing respect for the family and its title, then stuck behind enemy lines during a war and completely abandoned by his family. Childhood friend Patrick, however, has maintained ties with Edward and it is because of his friend and the friend’s younger brother Stephen that Edward finds himself back in England. James is targeting Stephen, who happens to write for Free’s radical newspaper, and Edward is going to put a stop to it. Edward has no interest in taking his title and is fine with his ambitious younger brother officially becoming Viscount in a few months. As far as anyone else in England knows, Edward DeLacey died. As far as Edward Clark is concerned, Edward DeLacey died, too. When he arrives in England, he expects to handle business and get back to Toulouse and his iron works. He does not expect Free Marshall to turn him completely upside down.
The budding relationship between Free and Edward is so much fun to read. They are both pretty obvious about their interest in each other, and they also enjoy goading each other. Edward tells Free that he is a forger and liar and not to be trusted, but he keeps doing things that show she can trust him. Edward respects Free’s intelligence and admires the fact that she is often one step ahead of him in his plans. Free has had experience with all kinds of unsavory people but Edward is her favorite scoundrel. She knows there is more to him than meets the eye. As they get to know one another, each of them is forced to confront the traumas from the past that continue to haunt them. For Free, this trauma is related to an undercover investigation at a women’s prison. For Edward, the trauma is rooted in his experience of the horror of war and the awful things that a person might do when placed in an impossible situation. Each of them has some knowledge of the other’s past, and Edward is amazed at Free’s resilience, her ability to get up and keep fighting when all the odds are against her. That message of the novel, about maintaining hope and seeing a reason to keep fighting, is so wonderful and so timely.
I am not going to explain the puppy cannon. Go read the book. It’s delightful. It reminded me how wonderful it is to have written letters from the one you love. Back in the 1990s when my husband and I were getting to know each other, we lived in different states and, given that email was relatively new and internet connections were of the very slow dial-up nature, we wrote letters to each other. I still have them. Correspondence and proper punctuation can be a bit of an aphrodisiac.
