The legacy of the rose

Second read. First review.

I think I loved it just as much this time as the first time I read it, which was around 1992. Of course the two main characters are upper crust. Why would you bother with a Victorian romance if they weren't? Kate Harvey (aka Lady Katherine D'Harnancourt) and Lucien Kingsley Tremaine are perfect for each other and perfectly flawed. Both lost their entire families, almost overnight.

Lucien returns from war to find himself revealed as a bastard son and striped of his inheritance. Katherine had to reinvent herself after becoming pregnant while unwed.

But anyone who reads you the story can tell you what happens. What I love about this book is what I love about any book that tries to tell a great story. Strong characters, lots of them, each with strong motivation. Excellent dialogue, believable (for the time) circumstances, and more obstacles in the protagonist's path than you could shake a stick at.

And love. The unending, unbreakable, forged from fire emotion that keeps you coming back time and again. Sure, it's 424 pages long, but it's so, so worth it.