Lady Emily's Exotic Journey
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4.5 • 2 Ratings
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- $7.99
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- $7.99
Publisher Description
"Lady Emily’s Exotic Journey is a fun tale of desire, adventure, enticing characters. A sexy and wildly entertaining romance."—Addicted to Romance
For a man whose only mistress is travel, can Lucien Chambertin change his loveless ways for the enchanting Emily Tremaine?
Safe in the embrace of her loving family, Lady Emily Tremaine longs to feel more intensely alive. Surely the magic and mystery of Assyria and the fabled ruins of Nineveh will bring about the transformation she seeks.
Scarred by his past and estranged from his noble grandfather, French adventurer Lucien Chambertin desires neither a home nor the chains of emotional attachment. He seeks only to explore the far reaches of the world. But he did not know the world contained the likes of Lady Emily—whose curiosity and sense of wonder match his own.
Victorian Adventures Series:
Lady Elinor's Wicked Adventures (Book 1)
Lady Emily's Exotic Journey (Book 2)
A Scandalous Adventure (Book 3)
Praise for Lady Elinor’s Wicked Adventures:
“Lively Victorian adventure…wonderfully different and colorful…sure to charm readers.” —RT Book Reviews
“A simply delightful tale of love, passion, and family.” —Fresh Fiction
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Marek's second Victorian Adventurers romance should be exciting, but slow pacing, exacerbated in the first half by the romantic leads' fixations, results in a languorous Mesopotamian travelogue rather than a high-energy romantic escapade. Even an episode with pirates barely registers on the excitement scale. Lady Emily Tremaine, her friend Julia, and her mother who helped enliven Lady Elinor's Wicked Adventures accompany her father on a trip to determine the efficacy of building a train along the Tigris. Their guides are Lucien Chambertin, a Frenchman with a secret, and David Oliphant, an Arab-English diplomat. David and Julia quickly fall in love, but Emily and Lucien require more time. After Lucien and Emily are physically thrown together during an attack on their boat, they become emotionally stuck, spending nearly 100 pages trying to comprehend their bodies' reactions to the unexpected proximity. Though Victorian attitudes certainly constrained behavior, their constant intrusion into Emily and Lucien's thoughts and feelings makes for dull reading in the present day.
Customer Reviews
A clever story with a touch of mystery, plenty of history and a nice bit of romance
Let’s get out of the drawing rooms and the overly stressful season and dash off to Mesopotamia on an assignment to discover if a railroad is a viable option for travelers along the Tigris River. The Penworths (Lord & Lady and their daughters Emily and Julia) are a close-knit bunch, the girls are well-educated and everyone enjoys an adventure. So the idea of them all traveling with Lord Penworth for his assignment isn’t too strange, and sets us up for a story layered with interactions and relationships, full of detail, imagery and interest.
While heading out on their journey, first stop Constantinople. Funnily enough, despite the change in location, Emily is non-plussed: the city feels much like London, not the adventure she had hoped for. Not your average missish giggling girl, Emily wants adventure and intrigue, and isn’t afraid to prove she is up to the task. Constantinople does bring one interesting development however, in the form of Lucien Chambertin, a French adventurer who asks to join their party for the dangerous horseback crossing of the mountains as the party heads to Assyria. He finds Emily and Julia delightful: curious and intelligent, different from others of their ilk that he has met. He shares nuggets of information with the girls throughout the story, some scandalous others not, to great effect. Of course, he and Emily grow closer throughout the story: dangerous threats from within and outside their traveling party, a flirtation for Julia with Oliphant that is heavy on stolen glances and sweet interactions and plenty of description that bring the scenery to light, this story provided depth in unexpected places, a welcome addition.
The relationship between Lucien and Emily develops well, pacing is appropriate to the time despite the rather unconventional aspects. Emily is, above all, a pragmatic and sensible girl, and she is willing to brave danger, bad weather, and inhospitable conditions and don native garb to not stand out, so Lucien’s secrets aren’t that horrible, nor a deal breaker. A clever story with a touch of mystery, plenty of history and a nice bit of romance: I’m going to grab the first in the series to read when I have a chance.
I received an eArc copy of the title from the publisher via NetGalley for purpose of honest review. I was not compensated for this review: all conclusions are my own responsibility.