Customer Reviews

Loving a Lowly Stranger

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Loving a Lowly Stranger makes you care about the characters, makes you want to celebrate their triumphs and shout warnings when they are about to make a mistake. I cried when the hero comforted the little orphan and trembled when the heroine was trapped in the mine. A great read!

Christina Cordaire has added rich new depth to the regency romance with Loving a Lowly Stranger. This wonderful story is filled with a grand assortment of characters. Adrian Ashe, makes a superb hero; a composite of Tom Cruise, Sean Connery and my husband. Who, along with the heroine, Lady Elise Danforth: a capable, intelligent and beautiful young widow, takes us along on an adventure filled with romance, mystery, and action, action, action; which has become Christina Cordaire's trademark. Christina Cordaire's characters continue to accurately reflect the varied facets of the human spirit. Among her gifts as a writer is the ability to reveal a character's vulnerability with sensitivity and caring which we can connect to immediately. Many of Ms. Cordaire's supporting characters are so well written they must surely be heard from again to tell their own stories. Loving a Lowly Stranger gives us an enlightened look into the class system of the times. The living conditions along with the dangers of mining are accurately portrayed. Ms. Cordaire has once again given us a beautifully written love story that we will re-read again and again. BRAVO Ms. Cordaire

Most people would be thrilled to learn that they had become an Earl, but not Adrian Ashe, who bitterly feels that it is several years too late for him to become the Earl of Haverford. Since he was a nobody before he left for the sea six years ago, no one in the aristocracy knows who he is. So when he stops at a tavern for a drink, he meets the local gentry, including Lady Elise Danforth. They think Ashe is a disease. Adrian eavesdrops on them and learns that there are problems with the mines and that the workers' leader was recently killed. Adrian decides to pose as a mine worker to learn more about the working conditions and to investigate anything suspicious.

When Adrian begins to rescue people trapped in the mines, Elise falls in loves with him. Adrian reciprocates, especially loving her intelligence and compassion for the working class. Though he wants to tell Elise the truth, he knows he must remain a working stiff until he uncovers the identity of the murderer, who will kill again if it furthers his personal agenda. Adrian knows that he risks the love of a lifetime by hiding his feelings and his identity from Elise.

Christina Cordaire writes a resplendent Regency romance that brings a poignant freshness to the sub-genre. The dauntless lead characters are charming as they struggle with their "class" differences interfering with their desires for each other, and the story line continually moves rapidly forward. However, what makes LOVING AS LOWLY STRANGER an incredible historical romance is the insight into the miners and their families, and their working conditions and homes, while still proscribing a rousing romance. With novels like this one, the sub-genre shows much maturity and anyone who fled the Regency world should give it a try, they will be pleasantly surprised.

Harriet Klausner

I did not like this book. The writing was good, but the story was sorely lacking. This review has ****spoilers****

I had no respect for the heroine. She acted like she cared about the miners and yet she called the owners who treated them poorly her "friends" even though she new how bad they were. It wasn't that she was pretending to sway their minds either. She was genuinely friends with them. She fell in love with the H after having 2 conversations and yet when he put his life in peril she still worried about what it would look like to show her feelings towards him since he was a lowly miner.

I also feel like there were huge parts in the book missing. You never heard from the H's perspective what is was like to work in the mines. He had absolutely no experience and yet after a week of mining the h wanted him to be the one to represent them all. It just made no sense. The H/h barely had any interaction and yet somehow they managed to fall in love? I feel like the h spoke more with her "friends" than with the H throughout the whole book. When they discover the killer, the H lets him go? I just didn't get it at all and by the end was disgusted with the whole situation.