Hester is the daughter of Captain Harewood, a former slave who rose through the naval ranks to earn a title. They live on the Scilly Isles and Hester lives as a free, independent and accepted English young lady. Until Napoleon’s soldiers come to the island and kill her father. From there, despite her fortune, she must escape danger and navigate the cruel world of the London ton.
Hester is brave, resourceful and skilled. And falling in love… with her own husband.
The book was described as “Bridgerton but more”. It’s not so sexually graphic as Bridgerton but it’s definitely more in terms of the politics, the spying and the ‘what if’ period when the book is set (a time when Wellington lost at Waterloo). A great idea!
Hester experiences blatant racism, a hasty marriage to a dutiful senior officer who continues to battle the horrors of war off the battlefield, and a new family after tragedy.
I liked the politics and spy games, the multiple narrators and their competing motivations and priorities, including Crow and Hester’s closest servants and Josephine, divorced from Napoleon and shipped off to England.
There’s so much going on in this book. As a romance fan, I would’ve preferred to see a little more communication and teamwork between Hester and Crow. I didn’t like that it wasn’t ‘safe’ as Crow isn’t celibate from the point he meets Hester. They get along physically but there are plenty of obstacles to their relationship. To some extent the physical closeness matches their feelings; their anger and frustration and need for eachother is channelled into their passion.
Maybe I’m expecting too much from the stoic Crow or from what’s realistic in the 19th Century? Maybe there was too much else going on? It was very action packed!
Will it change the world?
It’s interesting to think about what the world would be like if pivotal moments in history had gone the other way.
Get the book!
Game of Hearts was first published as False Lights under the pseudonym KJ Whittaker. Get your copy at Katy Moran’s website
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