The Secret Lives of Country Gentlemen by K.J. Charles

I had to keep reminding myself of the time period because Charles most certainly did not.

There’s intermingling of all classes with barely a second thought, and Joss moves very freely through a society that should be much more difficult for him, even in a small town. There’s no witty banter or societal ladders to climb. You can’t just call someone a baronet and drop all pretence of status and manners. The Secret Lives of Country Gentlemen is sold as a Regency romance, but it’s missing any elements that would place you in that setting. Unfortunately, there are a lot of parts that feel disjointed and don’t come together well in the end.

I spent most of The Secret Lives of Country Gentlemen trying to convince myself I was enjoying it. It’s a long road from there-full of danger and mysteries to be solved-yet somehow, along the way, this well-mannered gentleman may at last find true love with the least likely of scoundrels. Their reunion is anything but happy and the path forward everything but smooth, yet after the dust settles, neither can stay away. His family is his life…which is why when the all-too-familiar new baronet testifies against Joss’s sister for a hanging offense, Joss acts fast, blackmailing Gareth with the secret of their relationship to force him to recant. Joss Doomsday has run the Doomsday smuggling clan since he was a boy. Bitter at the sudden rejection, Gareth has little time to lick his wounds: his father has died, leaving him the family title, a rambling manor on the remote Romney Marsh…and the den of cutthroats and thieves that make its intricate waterways their home. Even so, he longs for a connection, falling headfirst into a passionate anonymous affair that’s over almost as quickly as it began. Abandoned by his father as a small child, Sir Gareth Inglis has grown up prickly, cold, and well-used to disappointment.

The Secret Lives of Country Gentlemen by K.J. Charles