by Jan Selbourne
Blurb
As the world rushes towards a war, the British government orders wealthy businessman, Adrian Bryce to leave his mistress and accompany his estranged wife, Gabrielle, to Belgium. They require proof Gabrielle’s uncle is supporting the German Empire. Adrian discovers secrets which plunge him and Gabrielle into a nightmare of betrayal. Forced to run for their lives as Germany invades, they must trust each other in the midst of danger, brutality, and injury.
Gabrielle enjoys her role of mother of their two children. Wanting only to be with her lover, and now fearful of exposure, she readies herself and her children for a difficult trip. With no way out, Gabrielle knows the visit with her aristocratic traditional family will be a trial, and Europe is on edge. She had no idea the danger she, Adrian and her children would be in.
Will Adrian and Gabrielle reach safety? If they do, are they out of danger or will the intrigue and treason follow them back to England?
Review
This is a 4.5 star read for me. It’s a book where I was annoyed each time I was interrupted when readingBy it.
Set in the first world war, Perilous Love (which has a much better new cover) has been newly updated and rereleased with a new cover. The cover is much more fitting. The story takes right before the start of the war. The two main characters I didn’t like – Adrian and Gabrielle. They are rich and spoiled and obnoxious. They travel from England to Belgium for their annual visit to Gabrielle’s family (Belgium royalty). What occurs in Belgium forces these characters to look at themselves, their marriage, and each other.
Selbourne takes them through the hell of a country invaded and under siege. The violence and the horror of the time is handled beautifully by Selbourne. Instead of forcing the reader to go through horrific scenes of rape, debauchery, and violence, Selbourne has the reader experience it as the characters do. These keeps the horror of what were realistic events of the war from overwhelming the central story. Her characters are well researched and fit the time period she’s using. Her story line is well paced with a balance of fast paced OMG what will happen next to the moments when the characters connect and are real with each other.
I don’t typically read historical novels. Too often I find mistakes on word usage, setting, or items in the book being out of place or time. Selbourne clearly did her research when it came to all of these things. This is well written. It’s got depth and heart in it. When you read the book, you feel like you’re in the time period with the characters.
what a great blog post, I really loved this story. there is a lot going on, what I would call a big plot for a romance. Like Eileen, I loved every minute of reading this story
Great review Eileen for a wonderful historical romance.
Callie.
Sounds like a fascinating story. Jan has the gift of taking you back in time.
I like the cover. I will definitely put this on my TBR list.
Wonderful blog!
Thank you very much for the wonderful review Eileen.
Jan is a great writer. She seems to know just which details to include to keep the story moving and keep the reader interested. This book is on my tbr list.
I totally like the cover of this book. It drew me to the centre character and questions were already forming in my mind. Why were these character supporting each other? What was the reasoning and the drama connected to this illustration? After reading the blurb of the story content, it was appealing, enticing to wanting to know more about the whole story. There was just enough intrigue , action drama and suspense to draw me into wanting more, of this very exciting stimulating and total entertaining book. My mind was captivated and hungry for the adventure within the cove of this book.
I loved reading Perilous Love by Jan Selbourne so much that I read it twice. The male character Adrian really got to me emotionally and I connected well with Gabrielle, who stood strong in times of adversity.
This is on my to-read list. It says a lot for Jan’s writing, which is fantastic, that I even want to read historical romance now. It’s so not my thing, but Jan has a way of bringing history to life.