THE MEANING OF LOVE is part of Stephanie Laurens’ “Lady Osbaldestone's Christmas Chronicles.” Melissa North and Julian Delamere became acquainted and fell in love several years earlier when Julian was just Viscount Dagenham. It was young love but, they were practical, and both realized that it wasn’t the right time for any major relationship moves. Now, Julian is the Earl of Carsely and in town looking for a wife, and Mellissa is planning her future life of purpose with no matrimonial prospects. A glance across a ballroom, and some failed manipulating by a third party, have them engaged the same night they’re reunited. With another author, the circumstances might feel too contrived, but Stephanie Laurens doesn’t play games with the reader or the characters.
The two main characters really make this book for me. Instead of pulling a jerk move and dictating how their relationship will progress after being discovered in a compromising situation, Julian shows more care for Melissa than that. Although he quickly sees her as being everything he wants in a woman as well as a wife, he appeals to Melissa’s intellect, and they come to a joint conclusion about how to proceed. Of course there is heaps of romance in addition to the practicality, but I love this approach the hero takes in wooing the heroine. This hero uses a heady combination of logic and sensuality to gently persuade the heroine that their instincts about what a longtime commitment between them could be are worth taking a chance on. There are two main components of THE MEANING OF LOVE – the second chance-at-love romance and the mystery involving the assassination attempts on the hero. I adore a healthy mix of mystery in romance in a novel, and Stephanie Laurens balances the two beautifully in this book. This story opens with a hint of danger as Julian ponders whether somebody tried to kill him, as well as possibly having murdered his father. From almost the first moment they’re thrown together again, Julian and Melissa work as a cohesive unit to keep others from dictating their relationship, as well as to unmask the villain trying to hurt Julian and destroy his family. Hooray! My favorite romances are like this, when the hero and heroine work together to fight something, rather than when the main conflict involves clashes between them. The shadowy orchestrator of evil is relentless in his murderous machinations. It gets to the point where almost nowhere and nobody seems safe. I suspect everyone. The tension is delicious, and the love story is on point.
THE MEANING OF LOVE has a malevolent mastermind in the background, but the . The solution to the mystery in THE MEANING OF LOVE is superb and is reminiscent of some of my favorite Golden Age detective novels. I look forward to Stephanie Laurens’ next book.
#1 New York Times bestselling author Stephanie Laurens explores the strength of a fated love, one that was left in abeyance when the protagonists were too young, but that roars back to life when, as adults, they meet again.
A lady ready and waiting to be deemed on the shelf has her transition into spinsterhood disrupted when the nobleman she'd once thought she loved returns to London and fate and circumstance conspire to force them to discover what love truly is and what it means to them.
What happens when a love left behind doesn't die?
Melissa North had assumed that after eight years of not setting eyes on each other, her youthful attraction to-or was it infatuation with?-Julian Delamere, once Viscount Dagenham and now Earl of Carsely, would have faded to nothing and gasped its last. Unfortunately, during the intervening years, she's failed to find any suitable suitor who measures up to her mark and is resigned to ending her days an old maid.
Then she sees Julian across a crowded ballroom, and he sees her, and the intensity of their connection shocks her. She seizes the first chance that offers to flee, only to discover she's jumped from the frying pan into the fire.
Within twenty-four hours, she and Julian are the newly engaged toast of the ton.
Julian has never forgotten Melissa. Now, having inherited the earldom, he must marry and is determined to choose his own bride. He'd assumed that by now, Melissa would be married to someone else, but apparently not. Consequently, he's not averse to the path Fate seems to be steering them down.
And, indeed, as they discover, enforced separation has made their hearts grow fonder, and the attraction between them flares even more intensely.
However, it's soon apparent that someone is intent on ensuring their married life is cut short in deadly fashion. Through a whirlwind courtship, a massive ton wedding, and finally, blissful country peace, they fend off increasingly dangerous, potentially lethal threats, until, together, they unravel the conspiracy that's dogged their heels and expose the villain behind it all.
A classic historical romance laced with murderous intrigue. A novel arising from the Lady Osbaldestone's Christmas Chronicles. A full-length historical romance of 127,000 words.
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