Congrats to
arella3173
for winning the copy of the Lovers Entwined by Lillian Francis. I’ve already emailed the winner, so they should already have heard from me, but if not, please email me at armchairreader[dot]coleriann[at]gmail[dot]com so you can get your book. Thanks for playing everyone and thank you all for stopping by and commenting on Sadonna’s review.
Title: Lovers Entwined
Author: Lillian Francis
Publisher: Ellora’s Cave
Length: 98,968 words
Genre: m/m Contemporary Paranormal Historical Romance
Heat: 3 – Sexy & Mild
Sex Frequency: 2 – Few and Far Between (2 scenes between the MCs)
Keywords/Tags: WWI, Pirates, Revolutionary War, British, Paranormal Dreams, Genealogy, Bisexual, Tragedy, Separated Lovers, HEA
Rating: Pretty Good
Reviewed by Sadonna
BLURB
Ewan is one of Boston’s leading genealogy experts. When a would-be bridegroom comes looking for confirmation that there are no skeletons in his ancestral closet, Ewan considers turning the job down. Trey is a jerk of the highest order and yet Ewan experiences an infuriating attraction that’s easy to justify. Trey’s exactly his type—a carbon copy of the man Ewan’s been looking for his entire life.
Harder to explain is the sense of recognition that leaves Ewan speechless the moment Trey steps into his office. Or the stomach-churning sensation at the thought of casting the job aside.
Trey gets more appealing by the day, leaving Ewan struggling with forbidden desire for his client. Desire not helped by strange voyeuristic dreams that have started to haunt his sleep. Dreams that appear to be an echo of the past…
REVIEW
Ewan Matthews and Trey Capell are thrown together when Ewan proposes to his girlfriend of 4 years and his prospective father-in-law, a rich political candidate running for Mayor in Boston, decides that he needs to “vet” his daughter’s boyfriend’s family before they can announce the engagement. Ewan is the genealogist that Trey is sent to and together then uncover some very interesting coincidences that turn out to be a lot more than coincidences.
In looking into Trey’s family history, it seems his great-great uncle fought in WWI in the British forces. Great-great Uncle Tristan Capell fought in Mesopotamia and his batman was none other than one Owen Matthews. Coincidence? It seems that Trey is a doppelganger for Tristan with the exception of his broken nose courtesy of a wipeout from his surfing days. While we don’t immediately know what Owen looked like, eventually of course it turns out that he is a dead ringer for Ewan.
Trey is chafing under the control of Paige, his fiancé, and also her father and so he escapes their watchful eye by going to “help” Ewan with the research under the pretext of speeding up the process so that they can announce their engagement. While doing this research we learn quite a bit about both men and their family histories. Ewan has grown up without a father and has only recently connected with the grandfather than he has never met. Trey’s father died when he was young and he spent a decade having fun – surfing and hooking up with whoever struck his fancy regardless of gender. Ewan is not impressed at all with Trey upon first meeting him even though he is physically attracted as Trey is exactly the type of man he’s been looking for all his life.
While researching Trey’s local family history, they stumble upon another coincidence in the form of a business partnership between Christian Capell and one Matthew Eugent. Ongoing during this research, Ewan has extremely vivid dreams of these two couple – Tristan and Owen both during and after WWI and Christian and Matthew when they meet as children up through the Revolutionary War.
Trey and Ewan continue to spend time together doing the research and also outside of that excuse when Trey tires of Paige’s family control. Ewan meets Trey’s grandfather on such an occasion and they hit it off right away. While Trey is attracted to Ewan he doesn’t feel like he will be doing the right thing if he doesn’t marry Paige and have a family. He is definitely conflicted about his future for a number of reasons.
As they come closer to discovering the truth about their shared ancestors and their tragic stories, Ewan is desperate to finish the job because his emotionally draining dreams and his continued close proximity to Trey – the man he can never have – are killing him. He can’t sleep, he’s miserable and he can’t seem to focus on anything else either. Things come to a head between Trey and Ewan and much is revealed about the past that influences the future of all of the characters in this story. Cryptic, eh? There are some things the reader should uncover for themselves 🙂
Hmmmmm. Where to start on this review without being totally spoilery? This is an unconventional romance in that until the last three of chapters, most of the romantic action on the page does not actually involve the two main characters. Instead, we see glimpses of the lives of the ancestors of these two men as they have intertwined across the last several centuries. While these couples were really interesting and greatly influence the arc of the story, the pacing of the book was a problem for me. I felt like it took a really long time to get into the core of the relationship of Trey and Ewan and I was about to give up at 30%. I just really wanted more time with those characters rather than all of the time spent in dreams witnessing the stories of the previous Capell/Matthews couples. That being said, I did enjoy the book and would recommend it with the caveat to be prepared for a slower start. I would give the first half of the book a Pretty Good and the second half a Really Liked It rating.
GIVEAWAY RULES
Please leave a comment below to win an ebook copy of Lovers Entwined. The giveaway will last until Midnight CDT on Tuesday, August 6. I will choose the winner using Random.org and email the winner who will then have 48 hours from the time of the drawing to reply to my email. I will then forward the winner’s information to the author so the winner can receive their book.
Please enter the email you’d wish me to contact you at in the comment form, or if you prefer, leave it in the message.
Thank you and good luck!
The Armchair Reader 