Before reading...
Not a review just self-encouragement...

As my dear friend Vio told me good-naturedly - this will end tragically.
Not for the characters....for Sims!
But -
a.) I`m incorrigible (what shall I do,I love the blurb..!)
b.) I`m prepared
- Disbelief got kicked out of the window,dislike of historicals completely ignored,CwD-allergy rigorously suppressed and my other pet-peeves...what are pet-peeves?

...that should work...*deep breath*

After reading...

It didn`t work...
I had a serious problem wi More...

Oh, the angst.

Michael is a rent boy with a heart of gold, who has developed PTSD-related panic attacks when he tries to work as a whore.

Wes/Albert/George is a lowly second son who loves Michael, and will pay for a month of Michael's time to do nothing more than keep him company on long carriage drives. And trips to gardens. And libraries. And more gardens. And Oxford. And gardens.

I loved both the MCs, and the botanical sub-plot was interesting (if a little overwraught metaphor-wise). The seconda More...

OMG EXACTLY WHAT I NEEDED! This was excellent. I was dying for a great romance where I could lose myself and have that "I can't stand to stop reading" feeling. THIS WAS IT! I carried my kindle around all day in case I could get a glimpse! I made myself almost late to work! I love Heidi's work, in particular Special Delivery and its sequel. (I frequently debate which I love more, and its about a 50/50 split.) In those, she took characters I didn't think I could love, and made me love them. Here, More...

A Private Gentleman by Heidi Cullinan is at its core the love story of Lord George Albert Westin and Michael Vallant; it's a tale of failure and redemption in families, friendships and society. Cullinan paints a vivid tapestry of passion and pain, of love gone down to the depths of hell and reclaimed at great costs.

Cullinan is not a gentle writer. She can draw beautiful imagery, such as her descriptions of Wes' orchids and Michael's books. However, her power as a writer is in her depiction of em More...

2.5-3 Stars


This is a second chances, healing love, beat the odds kind of story.


Lord George Albert Westin has a stammer that hampers his ability to communicate, it is so bad his family considered putting him in an asylum thinking that it was a mental illness. He also has a social phobia. These conditions have made him an introvert and reclusive man. The only way that he will even venture out is when he takes large doses of opiates.


Michael Vallant is a professional sodomite (and damn that's an awf More...

To begin with, I should mention that I have been an avid historical romance reader for a long time; having it combined with a more recent favourite genre (M/M romance), by an author whose books I have previously enjoyed and highly rated, let's just say I was really looking forward to reading this story. By the end I felt quite dissatisfied and it took a bit of introspection to realise why. The book deals with heavy themes such as child abuse, opium addiction, PTSD - so this would not be an appro More...

I did enjoy this book.

Be warned, though, if you're into historically accurate books: THIS IS NOT FOR YOU. From the way they address each other (okay, really? That, at the very least, wasn't right? WHY NOT?) to the situations they find themselves in. It felt like the historical portion of this book was more of a vehicle for the characters verses an actual setting.

I label this: historical-fantasy. :)

I thoroughly enjoyed this novel, despite some rather trivial things. All the characters have terribly tragic backgrounds, even the side-characters, but it IS based in the Victorian (or perhaps Regency? Its a little hard to tell) era, which was in many ways over-all depressing for everyone involved.

The depiction of opium use is actually rather inaccurate. Not only were the effects of the drug more or less inaccurate, but long term use of opium (especially laudanum)causes horrific night terrors an More...

A delightful story; it’s going in my re-read pile

Warning: This review might contain what some people consider SPOILERS.

Rating: 9/10

PROS:
- Cullinan handles Wes’s stammer beautifully. She doesn’t avoid dialogue entirely, so we get the point that he has difficulty communicating. But a lot of conversations that might be horribly difficult to read are shown as hypothetical conversations in Wes’s head, and he has no stammer when he’s thinking.
- Michael is a bit on the delicate side, both physically More...

I greatly enjoy gay-themed Regency stories, but confess to a certain amount of unease about this one, due to the fact that it’s a bit darker in tone than many of the historical novels that I read. You could say that this book puts on display the seedy underbelly of the times in a way that Georgette Heyer never would.

With themes involving laudanum addiction and child abuse, there’s no doubt that this book touches on problems never mentioned in lighter historical fare. But at the same time the sto More...

I'll drop one star because of these reasons:
-Not enough research done to cover little details. I'm not a history freak but it still did nag me here and there.
-Story suffers from too many clichés, which should not be much of a problem in a Heidi book, expect the way it is dealt with them is not adequate. Scenes that are extremely overused in fiction should at least be treated as important from the author. As a reader, I have my right to bash them later.
-Side characters were sketches of real peopl More...

It’s not very often that I am charmed by a book almost from the first page–but this book blew a fresh wind into the rather overworked 19th century area of the m/m historical romance genre and I found myself won over and wooed.

I have to say that I took to Cullinan’s protagonist immediately. In fact I took to both of them because they were so refreshing in these days of perfect hunks of men. Granted they are both gorgeous as hell, but Lord George Albert Westin has a stammer that would make King Ge More...

The worst thing anyone can do is try to pretend that a problem doesn't exist; ignoring them only makes matters worse. Michael Vallant and Lord George Albert Westin in 'A Private Gentleman' by Heidi Cullinan have past obstacles which are wreaking havoc in the present; their issues are so entwined that trying to resolve them seems like their downfall and their salvation at the same time. How they are able to deal with them will determine their future happiness.

Michael and Wes are fabulously comple More...

at 50%:

I am all set to give this a 5star now. Two broken men with no wish for anything more grand than a little peace and control over their own lives. I think that, for both of them, the love they are stumbling upon is more a miraculous joy than they would have ever hoped for. I can't wait to see how Ms Heidi fleshes this out.

Done:

I think I cried, or at least teared up though a third of this book. But I was right, for me this was a 5 star read.

I won't say too much but once you read it you will More...

3 1/2 Stars ~ This love story has a much darker theme and at times painfully heart wrenching to read.

Albert is a man who keeps to himself; terribly shy and suffering from a horrible stammer, he prefers his own company and botanical pursuits. All his life he's been persecuted for his stammer by his family, and he grew up shut in his own home. Until the day he meets Martin, a young man who sells himself for the pleasure of others. Almost instantly Albert falls for Martin, who instantly sees the ge More...

Two hopelessly flawed men discover that they aren't as hopelessly flawed as they suspected. A son of a whore who becomes a whore himself and the painfully shy, socially awkward, stammering son of a marquess meet in the most unlikely of situations and start a love affair with a dark, unspoken and painful secret between them.

I must admit, I am not just an epilogue whore, I'm a history whore as well and this story had me enthralled in the historical references, the sensitive subjects it touched on More...

Initial reaction is that it's not my favorite story of Cullinan's, but it's not her weakest in my opinion either. Not a glowing remark from me, but it is the initial reaction.

I don't generally like reading stories set in this general time period, but I think this one did well for me personally because it didn't feel like she was trying too hard with the historical ambiance. It has it without being overbearing about it. There are some historical fiction stories which feel like the author was try More...

"OMG, you've just got to read Heidi Cullinan!"

I don't know how many damn times one of my GR friends who know my penchant for GOOD historical romance kept pestering me about reading this author and this novel in particular. Unfortunately, the last time I got suckered into reading something that came with all these glowing bona fides, I wanted to hurl my Nook against the wall, so to say I was hesitant to jump on the Cullinan bandwagon is an understatement.

All I can say now is THANK YOU and *kisses More...

Here is another book that isn't getting the stars that the writing may deserve because the Theme was too much for me. And I'm going to blame Samhain for it. No where in the product warning was I told that child sexual abuse was going to be so front and center. "Product Warnings
Contains wounded heroes, bibliophilic tendencies, orchid obsessions, a right bastard of a marquis, and gay men who get happily-ever-afters. " It sounds almost blithe. No, the abuse wasn't on screen but it was certainly cle More...

Really no stars or maybe a 1/2 star. I really really tried to finish this book but I just lost interest about half-way and couldn't bring myself to care. This is especially frustrating since I am a fan of Cullinan's other work. The historical genre is just not one of my favorites and it has to be freaking good to keep me going. I'll give this one a rest and maybe try it sometime much later.

Previously posted at www.smexybooks.com

Lord George Albert Westin, aka Wes, is somewhat of a recluse. He has a horrible stammer, which gets worse whenever he has to speak to anyone, family included. The more agitated he gets, the worse the stammer, until he is rendered mute and must rely on writing on a little notepad he keeps in his pocket. As the son of the Marquess of Daventry, he is well known, but sadly, not for that. No, it is his speech impediment that people whisper about; thinking he is More...

This book was like one of those vending events where a well-versed eloquent salesperson effortlessly as anything manages to convince you that you can't live without their goods - and you listen raptly nodding your head and open your purse wide since you're sold, literally. Only once you're outside the sales room with your absolutely superfluous overpriced heating blanket, you wake from your daze enough to take a break to think, and then you shake your head at your own gullibility. But do you sto More...

This was not the best historical MM Romance book I have come across. But lets start with the things I liked this book before getting into what I did not like.

The main thing I liked about this book was the main couple. I liked that both characters were imperfect: Wes is a poppy addict and stammerer and Michael was a child abuse survivor and near sighted. I found this interesting because we usually see books where one MC is flawed and the other one comes out as the perfect saviour or they are perf More...

I won this ebook from stumblingoverchaos.com in one of their contests. Thank you!

This gay historical romance revolves around two damaged men, Michael, a beautiful whore, and Wes a Lord, with a terrible stutter. Each has a dark secret that threatens to explode and tear them apart. Michael seems to be about 28 years of age and I think it was mentioned that Wes was 38 years old.

(view spoiler)[
I’ll start my review with the book cover. I really liked it, only I was confused when I started to read the book on which (hide spoiler)] More...

Ever since I watched the Collin Firth movie (er...King George, was it?) about that King who stutters, I started seeing stuttering differently. Adorable, endearing, a sign of a good heart? Well,I saw past the stuttering. This gave me that same warm feeling. In fact I saw Albert as Collin Firth, and really tried not to, since I don't see him as the slightest bit gay, and not exactly hot, to me. Anyway, I loved Albert and I loved Michael. Penny, poor Edwin, even Vaughn (though he's mostly an asshol More...

Such a sweet, gentle, yet passionate and emotional romance. I really enjoyed seeing Wes and Michael learn to love each other. They were great characters, and they felt very real. It was beautiful how they could just be themselves around one another, and they accepted each other without questions, flaws and all. The plot is pretty intense, and it grabbed my attention from the very beginning.

Note: There were pretty major editing oversights that detracted from my experience. For example, one charac More...

High on the melodrama, as well as the hurt/comfort. I didn't enjoy the plethora of psychoanalyzing that went on in this historical, but, over all, it was an ok story to read. Disbelief must be suspended on many more than one occasion, however still a nice book to vacation the brain, if you don't get irritated by much.

Other than one book of Cullinan's that I've read, high angst and a village of overly helpful and completely understanding souls seems to be staples of her work. If you like the ang More...

I was so excited for this book that I actually bought it on pre-order, and I wasn't disappointed. It was a really good read. The main characters, Wes and Michael are definitely not cookie-cutter characters. They are damaged and have flaws, but they also have sweetness and courage and I was rooting for them from the very beginning. Wes is a stutterer and I was concerned that the way the author chose to illustrate this would grate on my nerves, but it never did. Nicely done, Heidi!

I found some of More...

This is a wonderful book. The cover looks like a typical regency romance, but the themes in this book are darker.
Set in the early Victorian era, Lord George (Albert or Wes to his friends) stutters horribly and has severe social anxiety. He has made a successful life for himself in spite of that and family pressures. His love interest, Michael, is a successful prostitute.
The journey from lord and whore to HEA is a quick one and glosses over some of the really tough times these two must go throug More...