The Lawrence Browne Affair

Real Rating: 4.25* of five, rounded down

First, read this:

“You have a library of hundreds—if not thousands—of books downstairs, and you let them rot.” So it was a book Turner was waving about, brandishing like a weapon. “Do you have any idea what that does to any person of sense? It’s obscene, I tell you.”
–and–
He ruffled feathers without even knowing he had encountered a bird.
–and–
He had never understood what use fine feelings were to a man who was half-starved.

But now he thought he did.

There just isn't a more fun way to spend a couple of hours than reading well-crafted unserious stories designed to make you smile. Georgie and Lawrence are perfectly matched opposites. A lower-class con-man must be a social creature show more or fail and be punished by draconian laws. No one is ever going to tell an aristocrat he's wrong and bad for being "on the spectrum" as we say in the twenty-first century. Bring the two together and let the author's wit and cleverness grease the rails and bring the narrative train to full speed.

I love the way Author Cat takes very real issues, such as the social isolation of those on the spectrum, and weaves serious points into her farrago-of-nonsense stories. (I mean that in a *good* way! I need nonsense!) I am, in this case, not quite as rapturous as usual only because I felt it was anachronistic for Georgie to respond so, well, empathetically to Lawrence. It's not impossible! I do fully realize it's not as though empathy only showed its face, shyly and reluctantly, in this century. (And we could use a LOT more of it, come to that.) But it was just a little jangling bell, a thready response up that one sneaky synapse...this is a bridge too far, even in my willing suspension of disbelief that two men—and one an aristocrat!—would be left alone to do as they liked when one is clearly not "right"...fired and fired.

You know what? Screw all that analytical crud. Get this book, read the series, let your mind take a vacation from the darkening edges of our social contract's shredding. Georgie Turner and Lawrence Browne deserve to live their happily-ever-after and you deserve to have it be in your brain. show less

This was vintage Cat Sebastian. something I am declaring after reading only 6 of her many books.

Georgie is such a great character: clever, cynical, astute, caring.

Under Georgie's ministrations as his secretary, Lawrence, Earl of Radnor, gives up his alienation from himself and society and becomes the man Georgie needs.

This is the trope, if it is one, that I'm drawn to most, where the characters save each other. Of course, it is the ultimate romance when each is made whole, and they hear birds singing!

The harmony is never dull however. I can see that Georgie and Lawrence will go on to create even more fantastic inventions, beside the telephone.

This novel, the second in the series, was equal to the first - loved Jack and Oliver's show more story. However, I didn't recognise the Georgie in that story with the man that appears here. The other George was world weary and unappealing, except for his loyalty to Jack. This Georgie has the depth to be redeemable, by the unlikely Lawrence. show less

I really enjoyed Ms. Sebastian's first book set in this universe ( The Soldier's Scoundrel ) and was so happy to see that Georgie (Jack's brother) was going to get a book--I'm thrilled to say it did not disappoint! Somehow, it was an even better read than Jack and Oliver's book--and that's saying something :)

Once again Ms. Sebastian gives us two characters who are absolutely delicious together, who don't at all intend to at the beginning but end up making life for the other one worlds better at the story's end. Georgie, who grew up in deplorable conditions, has been a highly effective con man for his entire life, but it's never really sat right with him and lately has been developing a conscience, which has him at odds with the crime show more boss he's worked for since forever. Lawrence grew up with an unstable and cruel father and brother and was told from an early age that his sexual orientation was shameful and wrong. He's isolated himself in his (literally) crumbling ancestral home, behaving like a brilliant but more than a little mad scientist. He lives in fear that he really will go mad, as his father and brother did before him, and it colors almost everything he does.

Together these two were just magic. Both their friendship and their relationship was slow moving but oh so satisfying, and I loved watching Georgie sllloooowly make Lawrence's home, his very existence better and more comfortable. And then the last 20% when Lawrence returned the favor? OMG. I was completely unable to stop reading from that point to the very end, for any reason at all. So. Good. Throw in some wonderfully humorous writing and great secondary characters (Simon! Uncle Courtenay, hero of book 3!) and you have an all-around fantastic read.

Rating: 4 1/2 stars / A

I voluntarily reviewed an Advance Reader Copy of this book. show less

Georgie Turner is a con man who has landed on the bad side of a crime boss. His brother Jack, a sort of private fixer, has been asked to help investigate the mental state of one Lawrence Browne, Earl Radnor. Lawrence's late father and older brother were both known to be mad, and rumors have been swirling about him as well. Jack sends Georgie to Cornwall to act as Radnor's new secretary, find out if he's mad, and generally to lay low for a while.

Radnor's not mad. He's an inventor and a bit of a hermit, devoting all of his interest to working on what will eventually be a telegraph and not, for example, figuring out how many of his servants didn't quit after the last time something blew up. He'd almost certainly be diagnosable with show more something by modern standards but he's thoroughly competent to manage his own affairs. That doesn't mean he isn't worried that he won't someday go mad like his father and his brother.

Georgie quickly realizes that he likes Radnor, and that he'll have to abandon the part of his plan where he tries to steal something from him worth enough to placate that crime boss. But as the two of them fall in love, the question looms of just how long Georgie can hide from his past, and Georgie and Lawrence can ignore the fact that he's there under false pretenses.

For most of this book, there is not much in the way of conflict, and it says something for it that it didn't need more. It's a rather slow paced story, one of two people without much of a place in society forming a family, as Georgie puts Radnor's house in order and encourages him to open up just a bit to the world. Every now and then a hint of an outside threat arises, but until the last few chapters, each one turns out to be surprisingly less of a threat than one thought. It's not a terribly suspenseful book, but in a way it's quite appropriate, just as Radnor adjusts some of his habits and the results turn out not to be so terrible after all. show less

More of this, please. M/M historical romance published by a major publisher? It's about damned time. And it's well-written, though there was some seemingly anachronistic language that gave me pause. I'm just so very happy to see a major player like Avon step outside of the traditional M/F pairing. I hope that other major, mainstream publishers will do the same.

Two questions, though:

1. Who were the dudes on the cover? It's like the artist put the beard on the wrong one.

2. Where are the F/F and M/F/M or any other stories than M/F in mainstream Romance? This is a good first step, but it's only a step. There is a huge spectrum of gender and sexuality that should be represented in mainstream mass market fiction—not just Romance, but show more Mystery and Thriller and Horror and, well, every-damn-where. show less

Regency-era m/m romance between a minor English aristocrat and a conman posing as his secretary for mostly non-nefarious reasons. This should have been catnip for me, but boy did I have trouble keeping my head in the story. I had to constantly check back to see whose point of view we were in, and the progression of the emotional arc felt uneven. The characters would seem to be over a particular issue and then in the next chapter act as if whatever the previous development was never happened. Blerg. There *were* some lovely scenes, and in the last third of the book when some more external plot thingummies started to happen, I was happier. I hate to drag on Cat Sebastian, as she is, to the best of my knowledge, the only person publishing show more m/m through one of the major mainstream romance publishers (for these purposes here, read: publishers whose books you are likely to find on the shelves in the romance section in a general interest bookstore), so hopefully this rockiness was a one-off (or was just me). show less

Georgie, Georgie, Georgie.

He stole the show. Just a bit too much - I felt the romance was a little more unbalanced than I'd hope as a result. But I listened to it, and the result me really loving Georgie's voice too.

It was a lovely book, a 3.5 simply because of that lack of balance. I just couldn't muster up quite the care of Lawrence, which is interesting, because he was a very intriguing character who just seemed to fall a bit flat for me overall.

As for the performance, I usually just say I loved it, or it added to it, but at times this narrator (though I do think his voice is quite delicious) was a bit too 'flat' and the transitions were a bit too smooth overall because of this.

But damn, that jewel scene. I wanted to cry.