The Bastion Club is a series of romances revolving around aristocratic men who served in the special services during the Napoleonic wars and have returned to their "normal" lives and are settling down to love and marriage. This is the seventh installment and centers on Christian Allardyce, the 6th Marquess of Dearne and his lost love Lady Letitia Vaux Randall.
Letitia's husband George Randall is murdered and her brother Justin is the prime suspect, so She sends to her former lover for assistance in clearing his name. They haven't been together for 12 years but the sparks are still there and Christian is determined to discover not only the murderer but the reason why Lady Randall married her husband in the first place.
What surprised me about this book is that normally Ms Laurens writes a romance with a bit of intrigue, but this book has a full-blown mystery which she leads you through along with the characters, revealing the clues to you at the same time as the characters receive them. The reader searches at the same pace as Christian and Letitia not just for love and forgiveness but for resolution of the problem that keep them apart.
However, I do feel that Ms Laurens, in this book, seems to be stretching out the love scenes a bit too long. They are as steamy and sensuous as always, but drag in certain places. That doesn't mean that I'm not reading them, I am.
Can’t wait for the last of this series. ( )

Number 7 of the Bastion Club. When Lady Letitia Randall sends word to Christian, Lord Dearne, he knows that she must have nowhere else to turn. They enjoyed a passionate young love, until he went away to serve his country and she married someone else. Now, as they try to clear her brother's name in the murder of her husband, they find that their love never died. Alright, though a little formulaic and slightly too long. ( )

This seventh book in the Bastion Club series is not really up to the type of writing that Laurens is capable of. Her plots now seem to take on the same style with the heroine being kidnapped at the end and the hero rushing in to save her.
While there has been criticisms that there is too much sex in this book, that is typical of Laurens. I have to say that, in my opinion she writes very inventive while lengthy sex scenes. Sometimes I just skip over parts of them.

The end of this book finally gives us the identity of Dalziel, who has been the commander of the spies who make up the Bastion Club. I will look forward to his story and hope that it comes up to Laurens ability to write an intriguing and fresh story. ( )

Laurens' usual good work. ( )

Reviewed for queuemyreview.com; book release Sep08

“The Edge of Desire” is Stephanie Laurens sixth book of her ‘Bastion Club’ regency novels. In short, the heroes of these novels have returned from the Napoleonic wars and found themselves prime bait for the matchmaking mamas of the ton. They formed their own club (hence the name) and decided to make their own decisions regarding their future wives as they have each now succeeded to their titles and need to marry to carry on the family name. I’ve read each of her Bastion Club novels, and I think this one is my favorite so far.

Christian returned from the war to discover the woman he loved hadn’t waited for him as she promised. He feels anger and bitterness that she broke her vow to him and has done his best to avoid contact as much as possible -- until he receives a visit from her, asking for his help. As much as he would like to turn her away…he just can’t.

Lady Letitia would rather handle problems by herself. But when her despised husband is murdered and suspicion falls on her beloved (and missing) brother, Letitia knows that only Christian can help her now. She’s well aware of what he thinks of her and knows that this would be the perfect opportunity for him to gain revenge for her ‘desertion’, but the honor of her brother and family is at stake. There’s NOTHING she won’t do to gain Christian’s assistance.

I, like many of Laurens’ fans, had begun to feel her novels had become stale, that I was reading the same novel over and again, just with different characters. I’m glad to say that with only a few exceptions, this novel has the mystery and pacing and fire of her earlier works. Ms. Laurens is a master of description, at times she tends to go a bit overboard, but she sets a stage that allows the reader to practically ‘see’ the balls and gowns, and houses and streets of London. This pacing of this novel was also much better than previous ones. The intricacies of the relationship and the mystery were slowly unfurled at an even pace throughout the book. There were only a few times that I felt any kind of lag in the plot.

My only real complaint, and how shocking is this, is her handling of the love scenes. She writes with passion and sensuality as she always does, but I also felt she was a bit TOO ‘flowery’ in this book. It came dangerously close to ‘purple prose’ and it felt like her editors had requested her to make the love scenes longer, so she added adjectives. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still hot. It just felt more forced than her earlier works (and this is just MY opinion).

In any event, if you like regency romances and you haven’t read Stephanie Laurens, I really think you should. As her wildly popular ‘Cynster’ novels are now all first released in hardcover, these Bastion Club novels are the only paperback-first releases left for her fans. I thoroughly enjoyed reading about Christian and Letitia and the battles they faced together and within themselves to finally come together after all their struggles and sacrifices. I’m also eagerly awaiting the last book of this series where the mystery of Dalziel will finally be revealed. His book which, according to her website, is “The Mysterious Dalziel” is to be released in Fall 2009. It’s already on my ‘buy’ list.

Til next time
JJ ( )