The other
day I was at my local Halfprice Books with a serious craving for an adventure
romance. What I found was TREASURE ME by Robyn DeHart. This book was everything
I could hope for and more; it has it all: secret passageways, lost treasure,
despicable villains and a couple whose chemistry seers through the pages in the
most adorable way possible. It’s the third book in DeHart’s Legend Hunters, which follows the escapades of
a secret society of Victorian treasure hunters known as the Men of Solomon. While
I fully intend to read the rest of the series, TREASURES ME works just fine as
a standalone.
This story is about a man named
Graeme Langford, He’s of both Scottish and English decent and the current Duke
of Rothmore. Despite spending most of his life in England for daddy issues
reasons, he’s always felt more comfortable in his mother’s home, the Scottish
Highlands and absolutely obsessed with a long lost treasure known as The Stone
of Destiny found near Loch Ness. Our heroine is and adorable amateur Paleontologist
named Vanessa Pembroke. When she catches her fiancé
and younger sister getting it on the day before her wedding she flees to
Scotland to do some investigation of her own into the Loch Ness monster. Her
and Graeme meet when he rescues her from attempted gang rape by marrying her due to peer pressure and the fact that he believes the ceromony is so ancient that no one takes it seriously anymore. Of course he’s
wrong and they end up working together to find the Stone of Destiny. Unbeknownst
to them (at first) a dangerous foe seeks the stone as well to rebuild an
ancient artifact of doom that could dethrone Queen Victoria.
Interested in this Indiana
Jones-esque adventure yet? If not let me tell about the characters. As I
mentioned earlier Vanessa is adorable. She’s a scientist heroine who is smart
and clever, but so incredibly awkward. She’s isn’t afraid to be blunt and
considers romance and other emotions a distractions and I love that about her.
As with most Romance heroines she’s also a virgin with no experience besides
general knowledge that her mother taught her. Her inexperience leads to one of the most
hilarious first time scenes I’ve ever read. When Graeme first finds out that he
and Vanessa are truly married, his first decision is to annul the marriage,
send Vanessa back to London and move on with his life because like Vanessa, he believes love is a
distraction(and he’s an alpha hero). Vanessa decides screw that, she wants to
find some Nessie fossils and decides that she’ll seduce him so the marriage can
be consummated which means the marriage can’t be annulled. First she has to
logically figure out how seduction work based solely on what she witnessed her
sister and ex-fiancé doing . Eventually she concludes that “Perhaps all that
was required to produce passion was a lack of clothing”. After she figures that
out she “merely removed her clothing and pressed herself against him”. Of
course Graeme reacts positively and they have their first time. Her reaction during
the deed is this:
“Lust, she was experiencing lust.Her
whole body felt alive and full of energy and
Sensations. She wished
she could simultaneously experience this and watch her
Facial expressions,
record her every sensation. This was science in the making”.
The entire
scene is both hilarious and charming at the same time, not to mention
establishes the characters well. In fact, all the dialogue and inner monologues
throughout the book are just as enjoyable to read, which is part of the reason
I loved this book so much. Vanessa also can hold her own, at one point she
saves both herself and Graeme’s younger brother, Dougal from the villain, among
other badass moments due to her smarts and quick-thinking.
Graeme is fun to read about as well,
but I like him a little less than Vanessa just because he’s basically an alpha
hero note-for-note, but a lovable one who has his reasons for being the way he
is due to how he was raised. I wish I could say more, but there isn’t anything
new to his character, although he isn’t, to quote the ladies at another blog, Smart Bitches, Trashy books, an
alpha hole and I like him well enough to root for he and Vanessa the entire
time I’m reading the book.
The villain is a man simply called
The Raven. He gives every James Bond and Indiana Jones a run for their money is
sheer mustache-twirling evil-doing. He’s a despicable, but terribly smart,
manipulative bad guy. At one point basically every character looking for the
Stone of Destiny and Dougal are all caught in The Raven’s web.I love smart
villains, especially in adventure stories. Eventually, he’s defeated by his own impatience
(not before created a huge body count though), which was fitting end.
The secondary cast is made up of
Graeme’s cousin Niall( whose role in the story is very spoilery, so I won’t speak
much about him here), Graeme’s stubborn, but lovable mother, Moira, various
Solomon members from the previous books , some treasure hunters for hire and naïve
Dougal (whose role in the story is also very spoilery). All of them are
well-rounded and I really want to read the other Men of Solomon’s stories.
The plot is
gripping, fast paced and if you haven’t
noticed all my comparisons yet, very similar to an Indian Jones movie, so if
you like those movies and any others like them you will love this story. I love
the adventure genre and this book is filled with all of my favorite things from
that genre as well as the Romance genre, so I’m gonna have to give it a five out of five. All I can say is read
it! all of Robyn Dehart’s books can be
found on Amazon for 6.99 or less. I for one will have an empty wallet very
soon.
No comments:
Post a Comment