Victorian Rebels #2
Kerrigan Byrne
Historical Romance
Published in 2016
H/h - Christopher Argent/Millie LeCour
Setting: London, 1877.
Read in March, 2016.
My rating:
[spoiler alert]
The Hunter,
book 2 of the Victorian Rebels series was another awesome installment
from Kerrigan Byrne. I’ve loved her stories since her Highland
Historicals series, and IMO, this series is soon proving to be as
awesome as the other one. Then again, there was no doubt in my mind that
Kerrigan is a very talented author.
Note that Victorian Rebels
has NO ties to Highland Historicals whatsoever. This series has no
paranormal or time travel elements in it, just a few Victorian-era bad
boys of the underworld getting their HEAs with women who bring them down
to their knees, quite literally. More than once I’m happy to add. :D
The Highwayman
is the first book which tells the story of the first bad boy, the
reigning king of London’s underworld, Dorian Blackwell. It’s a great
take on the beauty and the beast theme where Dorian was portrayed as
someone dark and hulking, with one wounded eye and enough scars on his
body to tell of a life spend in utter despair, while Farah, his “fairy”
was just that, a beautiful soul inside and out. A fairy who looked like
one too. The prologue set up a magical yet haunting tone, the narratives
of Dorian and Farah’ first meeting as two orphans. It also gives you
that shiver of premonition that you can’t quite shake off. Fate brought
them together when they were children, it tore them apart quite brutally
too. And when, at last, they’re reunited after 20 long years, no one
could tell what fate would bring for them this time. Farah thought her
“Dougan” died in the prison that held him on the charge of murdering a
priest. A priest who was also the caretaker of the orphanage they were
in; a priest who had a monster hidden behind his robes. But things were
not as Farah thought they were. Dorian storms back into her life and
turns it completely upside down. And he wasn’t the Dougan Farah used to
know. This man was so tortured and haunted by his mistreatment (for the
lack of better word) in prison that she didn’t know if she can ever save
his already dying soul. She wanted to be his savior but will the man
himself accept her help? He who thought he’s beyond saving?
I
have to say theirs was a treacherous journey. The story was dark and
addictive, with some hot, hot sex scenes. Dorian/Dougan was crazy
possessive, often grumpy and Farah was his equal match with a mixture of
beguiling innocence and a strong personality. You just know she’s the
one who can handle a volatile man like Dorian; the one to also transform
his dreary world into something much, much better—which she does by the
end of the story.
Now, we met Christopher Argent, assassin
extraordinaire working for Dorian for a long time, in The Highwayman.
Both Dorian and Christopher and some other secondary characters we met
became allies when they were still in prison. Some of them met as
children and had to stick together to fend off the dangers. Even though
none were spared the cruelty and abuse of the prison, their experiences
made them tougher, stronger... deadlier. They had caught on very early
that it’s a world where only the fittest survive. And to survive, you
must learn to do whatever it takes. Both Dorian and Christopher did what
they had to, which in turn made them the man they were today. And
though Dorian thought he’d found the salvation he’d been looking for all
those years, what about Christopher, the cold-eyed assassin with a long
dead heart?
The prologue of The Hunter, quite
similarly, sets the tone of the story that’d send chills down your
spine. Christopher was born in Newgate where his mother had been
incarcerated for a long time when we get the glimpse of his childhood.
He’d grown up there, knowing and seeing things no child should ever be
privy of, including his mother’s prostitution as a bargain with the
prison guards for simplest of things; so that her son have one more
slice of bread, so that they have one more blanket, however ragged and
flea-ridden that was. Christine has done it all for her little boy and
though she was a whore and a thief serving 15 yrs., she loved
Christopher. She made herself carry on his sake, hoping that someday
she’d be out in the sun once again; that her son would know what the sun
looks like outside of the prison building for the very first time. He’d
experience what freedom tastes like… But that hope was dashed one
violent night when she was raped and murdered, in front of Christopher
no less, who could do nothing because, much like his mother, he couldn’t
fight off the men holding him down. His scream for help went unheard.
After spending the rest of the night in that dank prison cell, drenched
in his mother’s blood, Christopher surrendered his innocence and his
humanity to the desolation of his situation. Something snapped in him
and it changed him irrevocably.
Christopher was taking kung fu
training from another Chinese prisoner, Master Wu Ping, who taught him
to accept things like the water, Its fluidity and its
depth. It strengthened Christopher’s ability to contain his emotions
without feeling anything as one would feel surrounded by water. That
sense of surrealism. This training held him enough so Christopher didn’t
went mad. Instead, he became the last face his victims would see. The
assassin who has ruled the underworld working side by side with Dorian.
Dorian maybe called the King, Christopher is his right hand man. He’s
the best in what he does. And though he’s an assassin for hire,
Christopher doesn’t kill for pleasure, to relish. Christopher sees his
“job” as that... a job and strictly adheres to some codes of conduct.
One would be his vow to never to kill children no matter what, something
that’d ultimately lead him to his latest would-be victim, the
alluringly beautiful actress, the darling of the theaters of London,
Millie LeCour.
Millie’s story is not much different than
Christopher’s, though her life was far less miserable than
Christopher’s. As a Polish immigrant, she’d lived in poverty until luck
smiled down upon her and her childhood friend, Agnes. Both of them
didn’t have family to speak of and when they got the acting job at the
theater, it was like one of their longstanding dreams coming true.
Whereas Millie loved the stage and to be in the spotlight, Agnes was
more of an introvert. And though Millie liked flirting yet keeping men
at bay, Agnes found the man of her dream soon enough... or so they
thought he was. But when Agnes is gruesomely murdered one day while she
was supposed to be visiting her lover, Millie knew her life won’t ever
be the same. She had to be the mother to Agnes’s little boy who didn’t
even know what he’d lost. Since then, for the past 7 yrs. Millie had
established herself as a mother to Jakub, her every single thing
revolving around the boy. Thanks to her, Jakub never had a scope to
realize what he’d lost and Millie won’t exchange it for anything in the
world. But ever since Agnes’s death, she also knew Jakub isn’t safe.
That that murder has to be a link to something much more sinister.
Millie had spent the days working and nights hoping and praying that her
son is safe from whoever it is. She had an inclination that it maybe
Jakub’s father, whose identity Agnes never divulged. She only knew that
the man was married and a peer of the realm. That little info there
should’ve been the warning sign for Agnes, who had since paid the price
with her life. As Millie kept mulling over her options, she meets this
tall, auburn haired man with ice-blue eyes who took her breath away on
their first meeting. Only she didn’t know he’s her would-be assassin.
At
first though, Millie was quite fond of the “stranger” who has been
present everyday to watch her latest production. It was one of her whims
that she’d choose someone from the audience to bestow her undivided
attention even as she acts on stage. This night, it was that mysterious
man she’s noticed, lurking in the shadows, who is so tall that there’s
no way he could hide himself away. He seemed to be a part of that shadow
too. Millie wanted to make him a part of her fantasy world, not knowing
he was going to become a magnanimous part of her reality pretty soon.
As
it happens, Christopher was enchanted by Millie right from the start,
when her eyes met his while she’s on the stage. Something shifted
between them right then and there, which also changes the course of
their lives. For the first time Christopher finds out that he’s indeed
capable of failing his “assignment”. Three times he tries and all 3
times, he ends up kissing the daylights out of his would-be victim. Each
time, nothing in his body would co-operate for a kill. The only thing
it wanted was Millie LeCour, alive and well, bent over for him.........
Christopher’s favorite position (or not, but it’s what he preferred
anyway because of what’s he’d witnessed in the past). Simultaneously,
Millie finds out that she’s gone quite mad to be insanely attracted to a
man who has been contracted by unknown sources to kill her. Is she
going insane because every time he’s near, all she wants is to kiss him
senseless… and do something more.
So after quite a few chapters
of failed attempts and thorough kisses, some word exchange and intense
moments, Christopher finally decides that if he’s going to be batsh!t
crazy, he’s going to do it the right way. He wanted Millie, so be it.
Since it’s been confirmed that she’s in danger, he knew she’d need
protection from whoever it was. There would be another contract out soon
and someone would pick it up even if Christopher didn’t. In the
meantime, there was this new series of murders of women while their
little boys disappearing, pointing fingers at another cold-blooded
killer at work. Someone Christopher knew all too well. And he also knew
that whereas he tried his best to detach himself from his “job”, this
particular individual relished it. He liked torturing his victims before
killing them. Literally, there was no better time for Christopher to
convert into Millie’s protector instead. He says as much to Millie, who,
at this point, would’ve done anything to keep Jakub safe. She also
believed it when Christopher said he was the best in the
business, so there is no one in this world who can
surpass him to get to her and Jakub. Christopher would be their
protector until the danger had passed… for a price of course. He wants
Millie for one night, in his bed.
Whereas this was supposed to
be a business arrangement, and Millie was supposed to feel the
proverbial martyr sacrificing herself for her child, she was surprised
by her emotions where this man was concerned. Being with Christopher
didn’t feel that way at all! And she wanted it, craved it. It’s not like
they were going at it like the bunnies, nah-uh! It was one night, when
it was revealed that Millie had never ever carried a child, much less
birthed one. She was unquestionably a virgin. I found it a little
unbelievable that never, once, she entangled herself with a man but
maybe Agnes’s brutal death warned her off of men. And then, she’d had
Jakub to think of since... Millie also acknowledges that no man has ever
made her feel so unhinged with want, especially someone so cold and
distant like that ice-blue eyed assassin she’s gotten entangled with.
He’s supposed to be the most dangerous man of all, yet with him, she
felt the safest. And she wanted him whenever he was close even though he
held himself apart from her. But Millie didn’t know that Christopher
was going through a big whirlwind of emotions, ranging from going insane
with wanting, to guilt, to the age old self-hatred and an immeasurable
amount of self-doubt and pity. He was a mess inside. All the emotions
he’d held in check for so long were bursting forth. Being like water
wasn’t working so well for him anymore. Poor guy had no clue how to
handle any of it and it made him grouchy, and when not that, cold.
Christopher
was already thinking that he had done what was done with his mother,
something unforgivable in his eyes (for valid reasons). He’d bargained
with sex, he’d taken the innocence of a woman when she deserved better.
Definitely someone far more deserving than him. Yet a part of his mind
was also becoming very possessive about her, something that never
happened to him before. Christopher had viewed sex as another bodily
function. He’d never slept with the same woman, be it a prostitute or a
high born lady seeking thrill. He liked using them, but keeping himself
as distant as possible from the experience. It was necessary for someone
in his “profession” to never entangle with anyone emotionally,
particularly the female kind. For one, it’d pose threat to anyone he
cared for... and then, the whole thing becomes a threat to his own
sanity, whatever was left of it. If anything was left
of it, for can he consider himself sane after all that he’d gone
through in his miserable life? Thoughts like this would also plague him—
who’d care for someone so far gone into the darkness, so irredeemable,
so ugly and unwanted? Certainly it can’t be someone so beautiful,
alluring and undoubtedly kind and caring like Millie! Christopher can
dream but this would never happen, would it?
After some close
encounters with the presumed killer, the investigation led them to
believe that it was Jakub’s father who was after Millie. The one that
Christopher assumed was, indeed, the man now contracted to kill
his Millie. The cruel, vicious and vile Charles
Dorshaw, who’s been caught only once so far but the prisons can’t hold
him either. Worse yet, his victims are never found, but their body
parts. To tell you the truth (and it may sound cautionary), this story
has a lot of descriptions, including the prologue, that may turn your
stomach but I found it realistic seeing our hero is an assassin himself
and how we’re dealing with a psycho too. I applauded Kerrigan’s efforts
on going in depth without being overly repulsive and not gloss
everything over just for the sake of it. She took a challenge and she
meted it out too. I loved it about this story. I cringed, I wanted to
gag, I felt sad for Christopher and the countless nameless victims of
Dorshaw but in the end, it all felt like an experience to me.
I
also loved how patient Millie was with Christopher even when he was
being a jerk, a dumba$$ and hurt her. Even for such a big guy and a
cold-blooded assassin, he was immensely caring about Jakub. He has shown
a side of him that Millie knew he totally hid away from the rest of the
world. In her heart she knew he’s SO worth a shot. And she was willing
to be his salvation if he’d let her. However, Christopher wasn’t going
to let that happen so easily when his old vulnerabilities crowded him
over and cowed him out of what could’ve been the first ever meaningful
relationship of his life. Any relationship for that matter. In the end
though, Christopher made it up and more, as the realization finally
struck him hard when Millie is kidnapped by Dorshaw. He knew what his
regenerated heart already knew; that he can’t live without her. Even
Millie knew that she was so precious to him that if something happened,
this just might snap Christopher Argent into absolute insanity.
Surprisingly
enough, that wasn’t the final twist of the story, but I’ll leave you to
discover that bit on your own. All I can say that even though there
were some things left unanswered and vague, I extremely enjoyed the
dynamics of Millie and Christopher’s complex relationship. It was as
intense as I expected it to be, by no means easy and a ‘bed of roses’
but so totally worth it! The story itself was well-written, though I
still think the dialogues were, at times, a bit too dramatic from my
liking. But that didn’t hinder anything. Overall, I enjoyed The Hunter.
Now I’m waiting impatiently for Dorian’s half-brother Liam’s book, The Highlander,
which is the next in the series. Liam has never been introduced unless
only by mention, so I’m curious to know more about him. And I think his
heroine is going to be purrrr-fect! She has already been introduced— a
grossly neglected and abused wife of a ne’er-do-well peer who taunted
her for her plumpness and plain appearance, among other things at every
chance he got. The pig! I think Christopher relieved the world off that
piece of filth.
Anyway, I can hardly wait! Meanwhile, 4.5 stars for The Hunter and highly recommended!!
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