Unlocked (Turner #1.5) by Courtney Milan

Unlocked by Courtney Milan

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



Except for cameo’s there are no actual Turner’s involved in this story. The story includes two people who appeared in the previous book - Lady Elaine Warren and . . . I forget her name, Lady Cosgove? The one in the prior book who had a reputation as being bitchy/catty/etc. Lady Elaine, in turn, is the one known for her loud laugh.

This is a short story, which I wasn’t 100% sure about when I started reading. I should probably mention that I’ve been reading this series in the omnibus edition, so one book/short story follows the next without my ability to carefully mark how far I am in the book, or . . . other stuff. Not a huge issue.

This specific book stars, as in POV character stars, Lady Elaine Warren (of a very good family), and Evan Carlton, Earl of Westfield.

Of the three works in this series I’ve read so far: this one has the people with the highest pedigree. It’s true that the prior one involved the Duke heir and an offspring of a Duke (with Duke being the highest hereditary title in the British Isles), but the heir wasn’t Duke yet, in that book, and had a business-class background (though his grandfather or further back had titled blood) and the Lady, the Duke offspring, was illegitimate. In the second book in the series – the lead female, while a Vicar’s daughter, is also a courtesan/sex-worker, and the lead male is a knight (albeit second in line to a Dukedom – his brother still, by that point, hadn’t fathered a child).

Lady Elaine, despite being ‘of a very good family’ has spent, what is it now, something like 11 seasons in London. At this point she’s basically a spinster, though her mother keeps bringing her out for all to see at balls and the like.

Earl Westfied, for his part, has spent the last 11 (10?) years wandering Europe and climbing mountains.

They knew each other, though, when Elaine was in her first season, and Westfield was 19. Westfield, you see, was quite taken with Elaine – her massive bosoms (what, he mentioned it repeatedly), and her laugh that showed her strong passion and vitality. Being 19 and stuff he wanted to make sure Elaine noticed him. So he teased her. To the point that he killed her vitality – she made her the laughingstock of society because of her laugh.

He knew what he had done and couldn’t fix it. So he fled to Europe.

Elaine, for her part, would have cut herself off from society but her mother loved going to balls and the like and . . . Elaine is there for her mother. Especially since the second most laughed at person in society is her mother, who doesn’t seem to realize she’s the butt of everyone’s jokes (she’s laughed at because she ‘apes’ men by being quite scholarly and spending lots of time researching and talking about astronomy).

So – the Earl is back now and wants to, at the very least, apologize to Elaine, and if possible court her. Elaine, naturally, figures he just wants to laugh at her more. The Earl’s attempts are undermined by his childhood friend, previously briefly mentioned, Lady Cosgrove (whatever her name is, it is something like that).

Interesting enough story. Short. Kind of . . . bland.

Rating: 3.50

June 28 2018




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