Worth any price? I would haggle…

Worth Any Price is the third book in the Bow Street series by Lisa Kleypas. It follows the story of a Bow Street Runner in London, which is sort of like our present-day bounty hunters. This author never fails to surprise me how even when using same characters in a series, each book can be as different as night and day from each other.

I am referring to book 1 & 2 of this series (Someone to Watch Over Me & Lady Sophia’s Lover) Where the first left me a little bewildered and having to stretch to believe some of the scenarios in the story, and the second had me wholly convinced of its genuine sincerity, here is a story I did not see coming. This one follows the character of Nick Gentry, who we discovered in book 2 is the brother of the heroine in that story.

Nick Gentry is a man with a troubled past. He was born a viscount, but gained a new identity when circumstances had him take on the life and name of a dead boy when he was but a youth himself. I was utterly surprised by the twist the author gave him, he’s very accomplished in the “bedroom arts” but has only sought to practice them on one woman other than our heroine, Charlotte. That little bombshell blew my mind. It’s not everyday you read of the male lead in a romance can count his bed partners on one hand, much less with fewer fingers than on that one hand as well.

Charlotte meets our hero Nick as he is impersonating, well, himself. He appears as Lord Sydney (his Viscount alter ego) at a house party where he is looking for, well, her. She is in hiding and working as a ladies companion to the Lady Westcliff, mother of the Earl of Westcliff (he is yet another of Kleypas’s enigmatic male characters, whose story is more detailed in It Happened One Autumn). On a sidenote: That is one of the benefits of having read so many books, it makes it easier to keep these characters all straight when so many of them appear in each other’s stories. It would get confusing, but it makes the Regency world this author creates more real.

Charlotte ran away from what would have been a disastrous arranged marriage to a lecherous old man. Said old man hired Nick to find her. Nick, in his quest to find her, mistook his obsession with Charlotte as his obsession for the job. Because of his misplaced notions, when they meet, he is overcome with the need to possess her, yet, he is torn because then he will not complete his job. And, like all good heroes, his inherent sense of honor would have him perform his job no less than perfect. It’s a delicious quandary.

But all things go south and Charlotte becomes wary of this budding attraction when the truth comes out that he is not (yet he is) who he says he is, and yet, it seems that she must choose the devil she knows better than the one she doesn’t. So she agrees to marry him (his honor offers her no less) for the protection of his name and person against the grasping hand of the possessive fiance.

The attraction between Nick and Charlotte is more palpable in the beginning than in the middle of the book. When he was pretending to be himself, he was more open and free with his passion for Charlotte. I think she sensed that and allowed him closer to her than after the perplexing identity change. I found it troubling that her misplaced trust would not allow her to kiss him on the lips, despite allowing other liberties with her body. It was very “Pretty Woman” and I am not overly fond of that movie. Is that generally understood prostitute protocol? Is there such a thing?

Their marriage suffers from other drama, as Nick won’t allow her to sleep in the same bed with him. He suffers from nightmares–leftovers of the imprisonment that changed his life, and scarred his soul. Their tantric sessions in bed sometimes made me tired of reading them. How much control must a man exert on himself? I’d rather he let loose a little more often. On the other hand, Charlotte has family issues; her parents are cold-hearted monsters, and it’s only when her life is threatened, and the ex-fiance attacks, that Nick, aka Lord Sydney, overcomes his hang-ups and lets her inside his walled-up heart. Phew, that’s a mouthful.

I was conflicted at times, debating whether to like or dislike the book. I guess the pros outweighed the cons. But it’s not a book I am likely to reread soon. I prefer book 2, it was more love, less emotional torture. Sometimes I just want a good old romance without too much melodrama. But it’s nice to see so many of this author’s characters even more fleshed out thanks to their inclusion in cross-book storylines.