A Tempest of Desire (Scandalous Gentlemen of St. James, #5)

The Vibes:

—stranded on a remote island (and there’s only one bed)

—sex worker heroine

—the kind of emotional twist that is in theory not a big deal but in actuality absolutely! heartbreaking! I gasped!

—don’t call me kid/don’t call me baby etc etc, this is character work illicit affair stuff

Heat Index: 7/10

The Basics:

Viscount Langdon is hiding out on his family’s remote island, licking his wounds after a railway accident upended his life and identity. When a random woman washes ashore, he’s stunned. He’s more stunned when she turns out to be Marlowe, London’s most infamous courtesan—also, she arrived via hot air balloon crash. As they wait out the storm together, Langdon and Marlowe realize they have a lot more in common than they thought. But what kind of future can they possibly have together?

The Review:

I will, it must be said, read anything Lorraine Heath writes. As far as I’m concerned, the woman is a master of her craft, and I can’t imagine many authors who do historical romance better.

Here, she’s picking up her Scandalous Gentlemen of St. James series for the first time in a few years (I believe it was originally planned as a trilogy, but a while after book #3, a surprise fourth happened… and now we have a surprise fifth, and, as it appears, a surprise sixth on the way!). I absolutely love her interconnected world; the series that preceded Scandalous Gentlemen, The Scoundrels of St. James, is my favorite of hers. So while I’ve adored dipping into the Trewlove stories and the Stanwicks and the Chessmen (and wouldn’t mind returning to any of them, AT ALL, to be clear) there’s something so delightful about seeing the St. James crew again.

James Swindler is still solving crimes (and his son sounds hot, so maybe…. some of that… Lorraine…?)! Dr. Graves is still solving every medical ailment known to man! The Langdons have laughed off the whole “he is a murderer” thing! The Lovingdons are still super hot together! So happy to see them again.

Viscount Langdon always lurked in the background of the other books, and he seemed like a happy dude; I mean, to the point that I wondered if we’d never read his story. He seemed GOOD. And I mean… if a character is raised by a couple, you as a writer sort of have to rock their shit to make them interesting. Which is something I’ve complained about struggling with when reading some second gen series. I get why a lot of writers are hesitant to mess with the kids of their beloved leads, but… you have to. Lorraine actually discusses this in the author’s note. She truly Gets the work.

So yeah, Langdon is a little fucked up by everything that’s happened to him prior to book. He’s stalking his island drunk. He’s yelling at God to give him a woman because he’s sad and horny. In other words, he’s fabulous and hot and I loved him. He’s a perfect example of how you write a hero who’s genuinely a good guy, but is not a Nice Guy. He’s got his issues, he needs to do some work on himself, and some of his problems really aren’t his fault and he sort of needs to be ushered into love. I found him romantic and tender without being overly sweet. He was respectful without being too polite. In some ways, he reminded me of a favorite gentleman hero of mine, Joanna Shupe’s Duke of Lockwood.

Langdon gets his time and his trauma and his character development. However, I’d say this is a somewhat more heroine-forward novel. Which is great, because I loved Marlowe even more. I mean, how could I not love a famous courtesan who pilots her hot air balloons everywhere, whose tragic backstory also features a hot air balloon, and who tries her best to be pragmatic… when in reality, she really just wants and needs to be held? She’s not quite as sharp-edged as a lot of courtesan characters (she’s quite young for all that she’s taken on, which I found both sad and, well, real) but she tries very hard to be.

I just so wanted her to have everything she deserved in life. I loved that she wasn’t quite ashamed of her profession… but did struggle with where it put her in life. As someone who fully supports destigmatizing sex work, I also appreciate a story where it’s treated like a valid profession… and not one every sex worker wanted or wants to continue. It’s not a horror show, it’s just not what she wanted from her life.

As a sidebar—really loved how Lorraine handled Marlowe’s protector, Hollingsworth. Who of course stands as another wrench in the gears for Marlowe and Langdon, but also doesn’t function quite like he would in a lesser book. His relationship with Marlowe is both straightforward and complex. He’s flawed, but he’s not a villain.

Here’s the thing: not a lot of Plot Plot happens in this book. You get conflict, to be sure. But there isn’t some big villainous twist. You don’t have to worry about people possibly dying. This is truly a character piece. Over half the novel is spent on Langdon’s island, which I frankly found incredible. (The pseudo-gothic vibes are immaculate. This is a perfect rainy day book.) A lot of time is spent on Langdon and Marlowe just getting to know each other. Talking. Flirting. Doing Things, eventually. The sexual tension crackles off the page from the jump (this is… a very horny book) and you know they want each other so badly. But you also know that they genuinely like each other as people. There’s friendship as well as passion.

There’s a famous-ish historical romance I won’t name that I couldn’t help but compare to this novel in terms of the central conflict (Marlowe is a sex worker, and even aside from that she’s not of Langdon’s class; he is from the bluest of blood, and despite his family being built on love, he fears the societal repercussions of marrying her; she could be another man’s mistress, but her deep feelings for him make her hesitant to be HIS mistress). I found that this novel held Langdon so much more responsible for his inner turmoil and its hypocrisy, while at the same time accenting his personality with a humanity that makes you Get It. The story Gets It. But it also says “Now, Get Over It if you’re really in love”. I feel like it makes him seem like so much more of a grown up, and it also feels way more aware of the fact that like… we know this dude’s family isn’t gonna throw him out for being with the woman he wants to be with. There’s MORE to it. I felt less condescended to as a reader, less like I was just supposed to throw logic out the window. It’s just smarter all-around, and it ensured I was still rooting for Langdon to find happiness with Marlowe. Whereas with the book I was comparing it to, I just thought the woman deserved better.

There was a moment in this book that made me gasp. Few other authors do that. It wasn’t even that it was a plot shock, it was just one of those things that underscored how quietly awful Langdon’s struggle is. And right after that, another moment made me gasp, but mostly because it was super hot.

The Sex:

This is definitely one of Lorraine’s hotter books, I would say—a lot hotter in terms of content than In Want of a Viscount, a book I greatly enjoyed. It’s not that there are way more scenes than she usually writes (I think there are four total on the page, which is good). It’s that the way she writes them just feels… very much like these are two people who are fucking it OUT.

And I mean. That first scene? The one where it’s all about her? Easily one of the best sex scenes Lorraine’s ever written. Damn.

All in all, another standout release from a standout author. I’m really glad that her health is improving, and I send my sincere wishes that it continues to do so. Few people write emotion better than her, and this book is in fact, pure emotion. Go read it.

Thanks to NetGalley and Avon for providing me with a copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.