The Soldier's Scoundrel

Well now I know where to look when I'm looking for something good to read: my own library! Apparently I had purchased this gem in a fit of good sense but then let it languish in my queue. Big mistake. This is one of the best historical romances I've rad in a long while. Period. That praise is not modified by genre. This is quite simply a gorgeous book about two people, who in this instance happen to be men, who fall in love and overcome odds to be together. And what wonderful and complicated men they are.The central love story is between two seeming opposites. Oliver Rivington the spare or second son of an Earl who's returned home to England after 10 years among the carnage of Badajoz and Waterloo yearning for normalcy and order. Alas what he encounters is Jack Turner who upsets all his notions of order but to whom he's attracted like a lodestone. Jack feels the same pull but fights it tooth and nail as Oliver represents everything Jack hates and resents: the fickle, careless, superfluous and sometimes cruel aristocrat. Of course Oliver is nothing of the sort and Jack is lost from day one.I loved that Jack's reasons for his line of work and his dislike of the upper classes were clearly shown and it made perfect sense. But it was also nice to see him start to see things in a different light or rather make allowances once he starts spending time with Oliver and obviously falling in love with him. I loved that Oliver for his part had revisions to make to his rigid moral view of the law and was fairly quick about it. It's one of Oliver's most endearing qualities his openness to empathy. Also his general good humor serves as a perfect counterbalance to Jack's prickly hedgehog but make no mistake, Oliver with all his yielding and melting for Jack is very much his own man and not one to be trifled with. The scenes between these two, wether having tea with a hostess or burning the sheets, are always revelatory to both men and to the reader. This is a journey of discovery for both men. Jack feels that they are as different as day and night and that a relationship can never be because he doesn't do love and all Oliver wants is a home in another, something to call theirs and he's willing to go to any length to get it and prove to Jack that they can. Perfect. I loved the mystery that was woven into the story and the business with Charlotte. In fact this was one of my other happy surprises in this book, how the women seem one way to society from the outside but when you really looked from the inside you saw the love that they extend to each other in ways big and small. How they care for each other with a cup of tea or something much bigger.I loved the solution or accommodation to which Jack & Oliver came in order to be together and if Oliver lost something along the way Jack was willing to budge in his ways to make him happy and feel cherished. I loved that it didn't get resolved in some tragic way or the dreary master/servant arrangement. The author doesn't make light of the dangers of such a relationship but I'm certain that in the past people found ways to be together and happy away from prying eyes. After all we did not invent homosexuality recently.Did I say I loved this book. I did. I must add that I also did the audio by [a:Gary Furlong 4436640 Gary Furlong https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png] and it's fantastic and absolutely worth it!I'm off to book 2, Georgie's story.

Reread October 2023
It strikes me as funny that I have this shorthand of how I mentally refer to Sebastian's books. Like, there's the one with the slightly mad scientist, or the one with the female thief, or the one with the male thief, or, one of my favorites, the one with the adults adulting. (ect) It amuses me to no end that I don't really have that for this book - except in the loosest sense. This was my first Sebastian read and is forevermore referred to in my mind like that. Because that has absolutely nothing to do with the romance or the main characters, I tend to forget just how well this (moderately trope free) romance words for me, as well as Jack and Oliver. (Who I adore.) And I deeply love how feminist this book is. (Definitely one of my Sebastian favorites.)

Edited February 2020
I think by the third read of a book, I really no longer need to write a review. In short, everything I said previously is still true. Adore this book.

Edited February 2018
Another reread because I'm not feeling well enough to actually pay attention to anything new. Anyway, because of how awesome the guys in the two sequels are, I tend to forget about how great these two are together. (Because there are certain aspects of their relationship that I just love and adore, possibly more than the other two.) And, I am pleased to say, the strong women still hold up. Sadly, it's difficult to find historical fiction where the women are as strong as these ladies are.

Original ‘review'

It's not often that a romance novel (much less one between two guys) is as flat-out feminist as this one is. There are so many strong, capable women in this book that don't tear each other down and it's amazing to see. (And the guys are awesome together, so, yay!)