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MY KIND OF EARL - Vivienne Lorret London - 19th Century Raven thought he was seeing things as he approached Moll Dawson's brothel. In the alley beside the building, he watches as a man is assisting a woman through a window into Moll's house. He recognizes the man, but the woman, who kept calling the man cousin, is unknown to him. Curious, Raven goes inside the exclusive brothel, a place a commoner like him would normally not be allowed, but Moll has brought Raven in because he is able to steer wealthy customers to her from the gambling parlor where he works. Skirting the Viking bouncer Moll has guarding the entrance, Raven proceeds to search for the mystery intruder. Jane Pickerington is in the brothel on a research project. She wants to discover the answers to many mysteries in life, and a bawdy house is one of the biggest curiosities to Jane. This is not to say that she isn't prepared for every contingency. However, once she is ensconced in a curtained alcove to observe the goings on, she realizes that one man who has wandered into the room and established himself near her hiding place seems to know that she is there. He's rather mysterious looking, handsome, but in a feral way. Shortly afterwards, everything gets out of control, and, although Jane has her pocket full of protective devices and inventions, it's all she can do to escape through the window, leaving behind utter mayhem, not to mention the mysterious man covered in pink powder that she enveloped him in. It doesn't take Raven long to track down the debutante and her cousin, Duncan, who works with Raven at the gambling parlor. He forces Duncan to take them back to Raven's flat where he wants answers to what went on at Moll's. Raven has worked hard to put his past behind him. Abandoned on the doorstep of an orphanage as an infant, he has known no family or had a normal childhood. Now, gainfully employed, he has purchased a house and is slowly restoring it. As Jane prepares her ointments to try and remove the pink color from Raven, she recognizes the birthmark on his arm. Is Raven really just another abandoned orphan, or is there more to his life that he isn't aware of? Always thought of as plain, Jane is affected by how Raven treats her. No man has ever been interested in her, thinking her a bluestocking, more interested in books and studies than love. So, the mystery about Raven's birthmark intrigues her and she sets out to discover what she suspects about his past. Raven is not sure he wants Jane to pursue this issue, and he tries hard to avoid being drawn into her upper-class lifestyle, where he knows he doesn't belong. Humor, sadness, and mystery abound in MY KIND OF EARL. It's difficult to keep Jane from her search, especially as she has grown more than fond of Raven. He, on the other hand, makes no bones about being attracted to her, but he also knows his place in the world, and it cannot be with Jane. Jani Brooks |
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