Unveiled (Turner #1) by Courtney Milan

Unveiled by Courtney Milan

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


It is difficult to write a review for this book now for an important reason:
- immediately after completing it I started reading the short story that appeared between it and the second book in the series. There might have been minutes between the end of one and the start (I’m referring to reading, though the series does follow a chronological order).

So, some of the easy things I can mention:
1) this is the first book I’ve read by this author that was not part of Brothers Sinister series (or, in other words, this is the fifth book, and 8th overall work that I’ve read by this author, counting short stories (and not counting the book and short story I read after reading this one).
2) This book takes place roughly around 1837 and ends roughly around 1840.
3) Set in southern England. Which I say because part of the book is set in Somerset, which is in South West England; while part of the book is set in London, which is in South East England.
4) The book is sexually graphic.
5) The people involved, the main characters I mean, are in their 20s.

This is an odd book in its way. A good many historical fiction romances tend to involve titled people and/or people of that blood. This one does as well, don’t get me wrong. It has the heir to a Dukedom and the daughter of a Duke as the circling main characters. Except…

The lead female character works as and calls herself a nurse. And when asked, gives a name other than her own. As far as the future Duke knows, his love interest is a servant. A relatively high ranked one that appears to hold herself well, and be well respected by others in the household, but still a servant. There are reasons for this. I’ll get to them.

And the future Duke? It’s true that the blood in his veins, to put it bluntly, is of a ‘higher class’. His, hmm, which one was it? His grandfather was either a Duke or an Earl. I believe a Duke. That grandfather’s son (hmm, I think there might be more generations involved) married a wealthy but ‘common’ woman. Ash Turner grew up, partway, as the son of a mill owner (father), and a religious zealot who descended into madness mother). Partway because the father died, and the mother gave away their money – an ancestor married for money, but by the time Ash reached adulthood, that Turner money was gone. He had money, but he got it himself, made it himself, doing something in India. By being a businessman.

So, while he is – now – the heir to a Dukedom, he wasn’t always. Oh, he was somewhere in the line, but there were people in between him and being a Duke, a lot of people. Which he removed. The current Duke, you see (and all of this occurred before the start of the novel, and is known by the reader fairly soon afterwards, well the Dukedom part), married for love. His mistress. Of no special class or status. His parents, the Duke of the time, ejected her from the family, but couldn’t dissolve the marriage.

That Duke, still living, later remarried. He and his Duchess had three children – two boys and one girl. All of whom are adults, and living, at the start of this book. As is that current Duke. So how did Ash become the heir apparent? By going to court and pointing out that the Duke is a bigamist, that the children are illegitimate. He turned them into bastards (literally, in the ‘a person born of parents not legally married to each other’ way).

So – the book opens with Ash and his brother Mark riding horses toward the estate in Somerset that probably will become his (the current Duke’s children have been declared illegitimate, and another court (same court?) has allowed Ash to make an examination of the accounts, but Ash has not been formally named heir – that’s one of the main things in this book, one of the main conflict points, the illegitimate children fighting Mark’s attempt to be named heir to the Duke; and to pass a law legitimizing them – making them unbastardized).

Once Ash and Mark arrive, they find the servants standing around outside to be reviewed. Ash catches sight of one of them in particular and tells Mark that she’s his (or words to that effect). That’d be . . . I forget the name she used, Miss Lowell?, but she is also Lady Margaret, or was until Ash made her a bastard.

Going back to the current Duke’s children attempting to fight to pass a law (which apparently is possible) legitimizing them – Margaret is there as her father’s nurse under an assumed name to act as a spy – to find something, anything, to use against Ash. To fight against him being officially named the heir.

And so the two circle each other. One is the daughter of the highest ranking hereditary title in the British Isles (outranking Marquess, Earl, Viscount and Baron); the other is attempting to become named heir to that same dukedom. These are not commoners, though one comes more from the business class background, and the other is holding herself out as being a servant . . . and if she and her brothers fail to get a particular law passed she’ll remain what Ash made her – illegitimate, a bastard, someone who would have to find work as a servant or the like.

This is where having read this book, a short story, and another book before writing a review becomes problematic. I know I liked the book. I know that I, mostly, enjoyed the book. But it is difficult, now, to give a more detailed listing of my feelings/emotions/thoughts on the book.

Rating: 3.75

June 28 2018



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