Book Reviews

Book Blurb

A man with nothing finds everything.

Abandoned at birth, WWI veteran Hal Stanton faces bleak employment prospects in post-war London. Desperation spurs him to reinvent himself to hook a wealthy wife, one he will be devoted to even if he feels no real passion. But when he meets his fiance’s cousin, Julian Needham, it’s all he can do to keep his heart in check and his eye on the prize.

From the moment he’s introduced to the charming stranger Margaret plans to marry, Julian suspects the man’s motives yet fights a relentless attraction. He’s determined to reveal Hal as a fraud but must handle the matter delicately to protect his sweet cousin’s feelings. A weekend at the family estate should allow time and opportunity for him to expose Halstead Wiley.

Even as the men match wits in a battle of attempted unmasking, powerful sexual attraction threatens to overcome them both and win the day. Can a true love connection possibly grow between these adversaries without destroying lives and loved ones?

Book Review

With two men who have diametrically opposed interests yet feel attracted to each other, the stage is set for conflict and a confrontation that might end in disaster – or lead to a very passionate relationship, even in difficult circumstances. ‘The Fortune Hunter’ is set in the 1920s, and from the language to the customs to the clothing to the food and the characters’ behavior, this story calls to life a time of the past when high society and its rules just began to lose their grip, when men loving men was a criminal offense, and when getting married for money was often the only way people without a wealthy family could amount to anything. I was pulled right into the main characters’ struggles after they first meet in chapter one, and fully immersed myself into this historical world wanting to find out what Fate has in store for them.

Hal is an orphan, a veteran of WW1 with all the psychological trauma that entails, and he has decided to get married to a wealthy woman since finding a job in an increasingly hostile economic climate has proven impossible. All he wants is a quiet life in comfortable circumstances, and from the moment he meets Margaret, he thinks that is within his reach. All he can hope for is companionship and he is determined to be faithful to her in his own way, giving up his desire to be with men. But then he meets Margaret’s cousin, Julian, and Hal’s plan becomes a lot more difficult to execute.

Julian lives off his investments, has no idea his parents are skirting financial ruin since he has not seen them much since his older brother died, and is very protective of his cousin, Margaret, especially since she grew up with James and him after her parents died. Julian is very distrustful of Hal, despite the attraction he feels, and is determined to expose what he is sure is Hal’s plan to “marry for money”. Even though Hal and Julian start out as adversaries, their feelings are clearly amorous and Julian has to rethink his position once they get to know each other better.

Historical novels can be much like fantasy – or science fiction – in that they take me away into a world that is very different from the one I know. And if the author knows what they are doing, like Bonnie Dee in this case, the worldbuilding is as interesting and complete as any encountered in speculative fiction. Part of that are the characters and their motivations, and while the romance plays out between Hal and Julian, Margaret has a major role to play as well and deserves a mention. She is described as “peculiar as she may be with all her suffragette nonsense” by Julian’s father, but is really a great character in her own right. Considered a spinster at age twenty-eight, she definitely has her own ideas about what she wants to do with her life – in a time when “polite society” does not accept strong women. Her strength had a lot to add to the story and increased my enjoyment considerably.

If you like historical romances with strong characters and creative solutions to make “forbidden love” work despite the odds, if you want to watch some “devious plans” unfold while others come to nothing, and if you’re looking for a compelling read set in a very different time from ours, then you will probably like this novel. It’s a wonderful tale with a hard-earned happy ending that centers on a somewhat unexpected way around the mandates of a very restrictive society.

 

 

 

 

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Additional Information

Format	ebook
Length	Novel, 235 pages
Heat Level
Publication Date	02-January-2018
Price	$3.99 ebook
Buy Link	https://www.amazon.com/Fortune-Hunter-Bonnie-Dee-ebook/dp/B077XLY1ND