"Finally! Julian Hampton's story."

As always, and with The Romantic, Madeline Hunter delivers an emotional love story full of realistic characters and plenty of plot to keep one reading to the end.

Penelope, "Pen," the Countess of Glasbury has been running from her depraved husband for many years. Unable to get a divorce as society would scorn her forever, and also because her husband refuses, she managed to at least escape his household, if not his name. But after avoiding England and his far reach as long as she had, time has run out and she must return home, hoping to get assistance from her beloved family and the one man who has always been there for her.

Julian Hampton has been the solicitor for Pen's family since finishing the university. He has ever been there for the family, including Pen. If not for Julian, she would not have gotten the escape she did manage from her husband. He often played his cards close to the vest, but his biggest secret of all was held so tightly no one had even a hint of the depth of passion he felt for the woman who stole his heart when they were both children.

Now a new threat has come to Pen from her husband, and this time she fears he may finally get his way and be able to hold on to her for the rest of his life. Who else would she turn to so as to avoid the depraved lifestyle of her husband Glasbury, but the one man who has ever been her champion? Will Julian's love finally have a chance to come to fruition? And what of her marriage? Can she escape once and for all?

Ms. Hunter has proven her immense talent for passionate stories that suck readers in with this story. Perhaps the most anticipated book in the series, The Romantic is guaranteed to live up to the expectations. Julian has been such a mysterious character throughout the series that his was certainly this reviewer's favorite character, and his story is as deep and emotional as the man himself. He has always been the dutiful one, never wavering in his course, keeping his secrets to himself.

Pen has been a delightful character throughout as well, and possesses a strength unsurpassed by many heroines in today's romance novels. The horrors she experienced in her marriage hardened her in some ways, yet in some ways she never lost that youthful innocence. She has her flaws, one of the biggest being her inability to see what was right in front of her, in the guise of Julian, for so long. She has grown so much throughout the series and here in her own tale, that she is a force to be reckoned with when she sets her mind to something.

When simmering passion finally is released and both Julian and Pen give in to their feelings for each other, the heat in their encounters will ignite passion in the reader as well. They are meant to be together, and have always been; though sometimes it was hard to see. This reviewer admits to having had doubts as to how their story would be resolved, and if it would be done in a way that they both deserved. She has never been a fan of the heroine being married to one person and carrying on a relationship with another, so was worried how it would be resolved here. Ms. Hunter handled this facet of the story in such a good way that readers can't possibly doubt the outcome. Our lead characters here deserved a story as strong and deep as they are, and this book fulfills that completely.

© Kelley A. Hartsell, December 2004. All rights reserved.

Reviewed by Kelley Hartsell
Courtesy Love Romances
Posted January 19, 2005

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Summary

Julian Hampton is the fifth member of the London Dueling Society, the reserved, enigmatic lawyer to the Laclere family. All his life, it seemed, Julian had been in love with Penelope, now Countess of Glasbury. And when he learned the horrors she had endured at the hands of her vicious husband, Julian was instrumental in arranging for her escape to Italy. But he has never forgotten the love of his childhood, the woman he had rescued first as a "damsel in distress" when she was a girl, and then for real once she had blossomed into woman. When Penelope returns secretly to London, Julian is the one she turns to, even though her trust in him puts both their reputations, and ultimately their lives, in peril.