The Maiden's Court: Book Review: Lord of Fortune by Darcy Burke

Lord of Fortune by Darcy Burke
Book 3 in the Legendary Rogues series
e-Book & Paperback; 366 pages
Intrepid Reads
April 24, 2018

Genre: Historical Romance

Source: Received from publicist for review tour

Dashing adventurer Penn Bowen is dedicated to preserving Britain’s history and his carefree, bachelor lifestyle. He’s happiest when he’s in pursuit of knowledge and the occasional liaison with the right woman. So he’s more than a little perturbed when the wrong woman inserts herself into his latest quest—proving that a valuable artifact in Oxford’s museum is a fake. Amelia Gardiner is smart and capable...and determined to prove that Penn is wrong about the treasure her grandfather found.
Amelia won’t allow Penn to denigrate her family’s legacy, and she certainly won’t join the ranks of women who throw themselves at his feet. As secretive and dangerous factions infiltrate their hunt, Amelia and Penn must work together to stay one step ahead. But passion ignites between them and suddenly their alliance is more than a simple convenience. When peril strikes too close, they’ll risk everything they hold dear: family, honor, and a chance for the greatest treasure of all—love.

Lord of Fortune is the first book by Darcy Burke that I have read outside of her Untouchables series. I was very interested to see how this series would be different from the other and was also concerned about diving into a new series at book 3. I am happy to say that I enjoyed this book and it was definitely very different from the books I have read from the Untouchables series.

With the Untouchables, I began that series at book 3, so some things come full circle it would seem! In that other series it felt like Burke regurgitated the stories from the first two books in too much depth, which resulted in my limited interest in reading those books because I feel like I know too much about them. I did not find that at all the case in Lord of Fortune. There were just enough references for me to determine who I thought were the hero/heroine of the first two books and just a tiny bit of detail about the vague storyline, but this resulted in me actually WANTING to read the first two books, which should always be the end goal for an author.

There is quite a bit of adventure in this novel, with the romance tied nicely into it, but the adventure is the primary focus for much of it. I liked seeing our hero and heroine enmeshed in something with more than the drama of the ton and they were out there searching for adventure like an Indiana Jones! Climbing through caves, gunshots, bad guys stealing artifacts, and more are all part of the mix. The romance is sizzling too! This felt very much like the Adventurer’s Quartet from Stephanie Laurens. I loved Penn and Amelia and all their subordinate characters. They are at times mysterious and others straight-forward and complex. I loved being able to unwrap them and discover the deeper layers of who they are.

I am glad that I took a jump into this series and look forward to being able to pick up the prior books in this novel and the book that is certainly coming next!

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