The Capture of the Earl of Glencrae shines.. Following such captivating books as Devil’s Bride, Scandal’s Bride, On a Wicked Dawn and On a Wild Night as well as all the other excellent Cynster books The Capture of the Earl of Glencrae stands strong among them. This was sweeping romance at it’s best. As in any series there are ebbs and flows, strong characters with epic stories and less compelling characters with softer ones. The Earl, stands among Ms Laurens best.

The Earl of Glencrae, an honorable man is basically being held hostage to his pyscho mother who wants nothing more than to destroy a Cynster daughter.. The Earl has tried everything to fulfill the needs of his mother without actually harming anyone. Having failed to capture, Heather or Eliza, the Cynster sisters from the first two books, Viscount Breckenridge to the Rescue and In Pursuit of Eliza Cynster, in this trilogy he is down to the last sister, Angelica and only a month left before he looses everything. No longer allowed the luxury of leaving it to others he must involve himself. He goes int thinking that while Angelica is his last choice, she will be too young, too impressionable and too flighty. What he gets is a Cynster daughter.. one who knows her mind and is willing to fight for she wants..

Angelica is pretty secure in who she is, she is 21 and ready to find her hero but not worried.. she is a Cynster after all.. she has time. Her family won’t force anyone on her and will allow her the time she needs to find him. In a crowded ballroom, she spies the man who could very well be her him. In true Cynster fashion of course it isn’t that simple. There is a clan to be saved.

Together the two flea London and rush to Scotland to convince the psycho-mom that she Angelica is ruined.. While I found the premise for their flight rather sketchy, the relationship building was excellent. During their travels they learn about each other and how each compliments the other. Recently I had pointed out to be how romance books are too driven by the characters hiding from their feelings, this was not the case. Both had decided upon a course of action and were working together towards a goal, that if it worked out, would end in marriage.

I enjoyed the time we got to spend with the Cynster family, trying to figure out if Angelica was kidnapped or off on an adventure or both. I smiled at the way this over protective brood of men had to deal with learning patience. One of my favorite scenes in the entire book involved Aunt Clara.. The oldest family member being the cousin’s great aunt. Clara is suffering from some sort of dementia and tends to dither but is having one of her good days and she knows she remembers something... It was sweet to see how even in her old age, a Cynster woman has value and is respected.

On the flip side, psycho mom made me shudder regularly. In a way it was the dark and light side of family. Except that while Dominic, the Earl has a psycho mom, he did have an excellent loving environment being raised by his clan. This wasn’t a book about a brooding hero that needed to be saved or a witless featherbrained twit.. no it was two strong characters coming together.

While not as epically sensual as so many of Stephanie Laurens books, it definitely had some smokin’ love scenes.. A relationship based first on lust, then respect and finally love.. of the three Cynster sister books in this trilogy, the Earl was most definitely the best and as I said at the beginning will stand among the best in this series..

The only thing that bothered me was it seemed the timeline was out of order.. I don’t think Simon had yet married which confused me and a few other Cynster family occurances but that is minimal other than that I sincerely recommend this book although I really believe that you need to read at the very least the first two books in this Cynster Sister Trilogy, if not the entire series first.

Shauni

For more reviews by Shauni check out Tea and Book and
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