Expected Release Date: Available Now!
Publisher: Liquid Silver Books
Author’s Website: http://summerdevon.com/
My Source for This Book: Liquidsilverbooks.com
Part of a Series: No
Steam Level: Hot
Official Blurb:
Nathaniel, the Baron Felston, awakes from a fever to discover he’s a prisoner on his own estate. At first, certain he’s gone insane, Nathaniel learns potent opiates are the cause of his strange vision. But barricaded in a small room, he can’t outwit his mysterious jailer.
Determined to steal back one of her father’s swords, Florrie Cadero gets more than she bargained for when she breaks into the baron’s mansion. The dashing, drugged man in the locked room soon sweeps her into his story—and his bed. When she discovers they’re trapped together, she devises a clever escape. Addicted to his captor’s drugs and bent on revenge, Nathaniel seeks out the feisty thief who freed him. Florrie, now a shopgirl, has foresworn her life of adventure. But Nathaniel’s offer of employment intrigues her. Together they must break his addiction and expose the villain who would destroy his life.
It isn’t often that I’ve come across a historical romance that involves both mental health issues and drug addiction, so when I read the blurb, and took a peek at the preview available on Liquid Silver’s website, I knew I had to snatch this one up.
One thing that’s always interested me is the various treatments for mental disorder, or “madness”, over the course of the years. I’ve especially been intrigued by the concept of sane people being deemed crazy and subjected to the same indignities and loss of freedom as those who are truly ill.
Despite the horrible treatment of Nathaniel, he was still treated remarkably well for someone who was being pawned off as being “mad”. He was well fed, allowed to bathe regularly, and kept in a fairly comfortable room. Granted, he was a prisoner, and was being drugged with powerful opiates that allowed his captors to maintain the illusion of his mental illness, so it makes sense that his mysterious captors wanted to keep him in fairly good condition.
Florrie was adorable. Desperate to be a “lady”, she had an awful predilection towards danger and adventure, which eventually led to her initial meeting of Nathaniel, when she quite literally stumbled upon him after breaking into his uncle’s house to retrieve a dagger belonging to her deceased father.
What worked for me:
- I’m not typically a fan of romances where the hero and heroine just “fall into bed together”, but in this instance, it didn’t really bother me. They were both mildly intoxicated, in a high-stress and dangerous situation, and instantly attracted to each other. Add to that the fact that Nathaniel had been without a woman for a long time, and that Florrie knew she was rather wanton and had begun to believe that no man wanted a wife who wasn’t also a lady, and I felt as though their coming together flowed quite well with the story.
- I loved Nathaniel’s drug addiction, as well as his desperation to keep Florrie for himself long before he recognized that he actually cared for her beyond carnal desire.
- This is my first Summer Devon novel, but I must say that she is incredibly skilled with both sexual tension and tasty love scenes.
- I loved the little bits of bondage, because they were deliciously hot without delving into full-on BDSM. Though, I must say that
SPOILER ALERT SelectShow Spoiler 
What didn’t work for me:
- I was a bit disappointed with how quickly the issue towards the end (that seriously threatened the justice that Nathaniel was seeking) was resolved. I wish that there had been some greater sense of danger and anticipation where that issue was involved, but unfortunately it seemed to be dispatched with very minimal effort or angst on the parts of Florrie or Nathaniel.
With the exception of the issue that Nathaniel and Florrie faced at the end of the novel, I thought that the pacing was absolutely perfect. Despite the scorching attraction and passion that they found together, both Nathaniel and Florrie rather danced around each other for a long time, yet I never had that “fish-or-cut-bait” feeling that is so common in romances today.
Having never read anything by this author, I wasn’t sure what to expect. However, I was very pleased to discover that not only did I enjoy the story line itself, but that the love scenes were fantastic and the writing itself was beautifully done. Overall, I adored it, and not only will The Mad Baron be lodged firmly on my keeper shelf, but I will also definitely be reading more of this author in the future. A deliciously solid 5/5 Stars
Romanceaholic’s note: Erm, I had the Author’s url incorrect when I first posted this reviw. It’s fixed now. Deepest apologies all around — that’s what I get for copy/pasting post templates from my other reviews
