Customer Reviews

Tangled Web: An M/M Romance

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The plot develops a bit slowly, but it does so with grace and sensitivity to Regency England. One of the blessings is that it is not burdened with countless episodes of sex. Some m/m books are nothing more than virtually plotless pornography. If that is your thing, go for it, but if you hope for a story, romance laced in, thoughtful character development,then this should do the trick. I think this volume shows some maturity in Rowen's work. Once again, however, the senior hero has a big cock. God forbid that either of them should have teeny cocks. Oh, well. Cannot have everything.

Set in regency London, this latest from Lee Rowen is quality writing, her characters credible and convincingly reflect the time. It starts off a bit slow but I am soon captivated by Brendan's story as his desire to help an ex-lover out of decency sets him on a course towards his destiny. A reviewer seems to have a problem with Brendan's love being an older hunk. What's wrong with that ? Brendan is only 22 even if mature for his age. Being the 3rd son of a Viscount, he has nothing to his name. The only way for this regency romance to work without the dreaded tragic ending is for a rich older lover who could give the protection they need from a society which would sooner see the lovers hang for their love. The regency setting is richly depicted and I enjoy the wonderful dialogue among the characters. Reminds me of a Georgette Heyer romance but this time the spunky heroine is the young hero who is not afraid to strive for his own happiness. And when these two finally get together their love is tender and the sex loving and sensual. Brendan does remind me of Dave from Ransom as he is the more courageous in the matter of the heart. On the other hand who could blame Philip for his initial rejection of his young lover as he is just acting sensibly. A delightful romance with exciting and humorous moments, this is a must for those of us into regency romance.

Lee Rowan has done it yet again. "Tangled Web" is well researched and is well played out. I just could not put it down. From the beginning to the end, the passion, the suspense, and the betrayal were so well woven together to comprise her best book yet.

I would like to start this review with the same sentence that I started the review of another book in these series.

This novel has all that I am looking for in m/m romance - sympathetic and likeable characters, interesting and rather complicated plot and a **love story**.

Here however is where similarities end. I cannot stress it enough though, what I am about to say next is extremely subjective, I cannot find a fault with this book on the intellectual level even if I tried, and I certainly do not want to try.

On the emotional level however I reacted to this book completely differently from my reaction to two other books in these series by Alex Beecroft and Donald Hardy or more precisely I did not react much.

Author is doing everything right, characters are complex, language is authentic and I still do not feel chemistry, attraction between protagonists.

Oh and IMO this story just has a perfect balance of story and sex scenes - there is story first and foremost and some sex in it.

Oh we are told that Brendan is attracted from the get go, love from the first sight and all that. I wish I could feel that though after being told about it.

To make a long story short I just was not convinced that these two were in love with each other.

Usually when I finish the book I love and guys get their happy ending, I am so so happy for them and so do not want to leave them at the same time.

When this book ended, I was like, eh okay, whatever.

I am giving four stars, because I would like to believe that I know a good book when I read one. Just was not my cup of tea and I have no clue why - I loved the language, I loved the plot, I mean how can romance reader not to love regency romance? I just did not feel romance. I however can totally see that many readers will love it and deservingly so.

Gay romance in English is a genre I've discovered only recently, and it seems that in the last few years there have been a lot of marvellous publications getting out. "Tangled Web" actually seemed unattractive to me at first because the cover with two very stiff and somewhat bloodless looking models didn't grab me. But the story of a lonely and desperate young gay man in Regency London who becomes entangled in a blackmail scheme concering his brainless gay friend Tony is grippingly told from the very first page. The protagonist, Brendan, consults a former military commander and slowly romance starts to build up between the two. The story is not very erotic, which is why I don't give the book five stars, although I'm not interested in mere pornography, but even the few sex scenes just aren't sparking. On the other hand, the romance is very well handled, sensitive but also sensible, and the inner battles of the main characters are quite well developed.

I don't know if this was the final purpose of the author, or if it came out "naturally", but I think that Tangled Web is the most "romance" of the M/M Romance in the new line by Running Press (truth, I still have to read one, but will do soon). Anyway Tangled Web fulfils plenty the promise in the description, a Regency romance. If not for the sex, I would have no problem to consider it "classical" Regency, since the setting, the characters, even the trouble in which the hero finds himself in, all resemble an old fashioned Regency plot.

Young Brendan is a prim and proper gentleman with "only" a slightly fault: he prefers the company of men to that of the young misses, and it's not only a question of camaraderie. History student at Oxford, third son of a noble family, so with no real obligation, Brendan is in the enviable position to be able to do nothing in life. Other lesser young men would be ruined, living as rake and gambling the few money their annuities allow them, but Brendan instead is a quiet gentleman who would be happy to discretely share his townhouse apartment with a male companion. It's not actually said, but I think that he "chose" Tony as companion since the man is not noble, son of a wealthy merchant, and so, in a way, more willing to embark in such clandestine relationship. Yes, even if Brendan is really a good and nice boy, I feel a bit of aristocracy in him, a slight aura of snobbery, snobbery that leads him to judge even himself for his own sexual preferences. And so when Tony put Brendan and himself in a very dangerous situation, Brendan has no second thoughts to abandon his scandalous behaviour and going back in the family and far from temptation.

But obviously the danger follows him, and Tony is soon begging help to avoid the right consequences of his act. Again Brendan proves to be a proper gentleman, and even if he doesn't "confess" his sin, he asks advice to his elder brother, the heir, who promptly directs the brother to a fellow officer, Major Philip Carlisle. An handsome widower, and a clever mind, Philip not only helps Brendan but becomes also the new object of desire for the young man, who this time, has probably chosen better, since Philip is even more prim and proper than Brendan himself. If the two will have the chance of having a "special" relationship, for sure there will be no leak of undesirable and dangerous proofs.

There are two "adventure" subplots, the possible scandal for Brendan, and a smuggler problem for Philip, but neither one of them is real a so impeding danger to distract the reader to the real story, that is a quite realistic and possible evolution of a clandestine homosexual relationship in Regency London. Not the usual plot of having one of the lovers so high in the social status to be "above" of the law, not even the one of hiding the relationship behind a fake marriage, but simply the easiest of the solution, discretion. A solution that, in that time, was the panacea for all trouble, everything could be hidden behind a "discrete" veil. Nor Brendan or Philip have obligation and no one will question if they will not marry, a marriage was not a thing of love, it was a contract, and none of them two is bond to that type of contract.

I like very much as the author builds the two main characters, so perfectly gentlemen. They are not cowards or weak; they simply have a noble upbringing and value that above anything else. They are not even damsel in distress, it's true that Brendan prefers men, but that does not make him a woman; a little example: when his sister asks him an opinion on his fiancé, a man that Brendan himself finds attractive, he says that he was the "finest bat at cricket" in college, and when his sister lament that she "fails to see what difference that makes in his potential as a husband", Brendan thinks that "he could have given no higher praise". Brendan is not a woman in the body of a man; Brendan is 100% a man, with the mind of a man.

Brendan is maybe a little more developed than Philip, but also the older man is a fine example of gentleman. It seems that other than sexual desire, also the love for horses commons the two men, and I don't know, I have the feeling that the older man sees in Brendan the chance to have a companion for the rest of his life, a companion that his simpler to deal than most of the women. I don't think that Philip would even consider marrying again, but Brendan is a very good solution.

Now don't get me wrong, it's not that this book lacks of romance, remember what I said at the beginning, this is probably one of the finest Regency romance I read lately, it's only that the author perfectly describes how two Regency gentlemen should be, and they are like that, prim and proper. An appropriateness that they are able to forget when they are behind the safe door of a bedroom.

I think she would have written something like this. In my opinion this is far and away Lee Rowan's best book yet, and that's even including her award winner, Ransom. This has everything that I love in a romance and in a historical novel - wonderful period detail, two complex, likable and honorable protagonists, lots of story, both action orientated (blackmail, smugglers) and more on a level of domestic problems (the plans and worries of Brendan's family, which he, as an affectionate and goodhearted young man, attempts to help solve.

The love between Brendan and Richard was palpable, to me, and all the more affecting because it had to be expressed in such a restrained way. I fell in love with Richard myself, after having seen him through Brendan's eyes :) And the genuine caring and happiness I got from this couple made the few, tasteful sex scenes golden with love. Gorgeous!

The comparison with Austen is because Lee Rowan is a writer of a similar sort. Not a producer of overwrought melodrama like Wuthering Heights, but a cooler, more delicate, elegant and restrained writer. And she produces characters with good brains and morals to go with their passionate hearts. Richard is far more a Darcy than a Heathcliff, and to me that is a very very good thing.

Lots of story, wonderful characters, and lots of love mean that out of the four RP books, this was the one that most left me with that 'happy ever after' glow.

I love historicals but not so much m/m but I was curious so I bought this book and it was ask executed. Great world building and the chemistry between the two heroes was believable and off the charts.

Warning: This review might contain what some people consider SPOILERS.

Rating: 8/10

PROS:
- I love Regency romances. (Love, love, love.) And this is a very well-written Regency romance. Rowan's writing is top-notch: her turn-of-phrase is concise and slick and often, in my opinion, just perfect for the situation.
- The dialog is exceptional. In very few instances was I brought out of the story because one of the characters said something that seemed out of character or inconsistent with the setting.
- The two heroes are (as one would expect) quite heroic. They are true paragons, both of them, of male beauty and respectability: proper, valiant, and chivalrous--but appropriately unruly in bed, of course.
- Rowan weaves 2 plotlines together fairly well (or 3, if you count the romance separately), so that the book is pleasantly exciting throughout.

CONS:
- I was just a bit disappointed by the romantic element. I couldn't make myself truly believe in the strength of the two men's attachment. Brendan's worship of Philip made perfect sense to me and was quite convincing, but I wanted more from Philip. He is utterly restrained and refined, and I understand that, but even in his unvoiced thoughts I saw little more than an appreciation for Brendan's propriety and physical attractiveness. It also bothered me more than a little that Philip repeatedly refers to Brendan as "a brave lad" and "my dear boy" and other descriptors that bring constant attention to Brendan's youth.
- Philip's decision to give in to Brendan's seduction occurred rather suddenly for me. Just 25 pages before Philip first admits to wanting Brendan sexually, Philip is still "hoping that such an agreeable young man was not...engaging in activity that was roundly condemned by the Churches of both England and Rome."

Overall comments: I think this book is good: it captures not only the gallantry of early 19th century English society, but also its seedy corruption. I simply found the relationship a bit lacking emotionally.

Like many readers, I have far too many books, and I've tried to put myself on a "read-and-release" regimen. But I can't do that to certain books - some novels I have to keep, because I want to read them again and again. Usually, if this is true about one novel by an author, it is true about many or all of his or her novels. They are the rereadables.

Lee Rowan is such an author for me. I have read every one of her novels at least three times, and I still enjoy slipping under the familiar covers of her Royal Navy series ("Davy in the Navy"). Her latest, Tangled Web, has new characters and a different setting, but it is just as rereadable as the others, and better yet, it is a real Regency romance.

In most of the reviews of TW I have read, there has been mention of the book having points in common with the novels of that doyenne of the Regency romance, Georgette Heyer. And so it does, in its feel, tone and quality, but Rowan writes a pairing that Heyer never could. Both Brendan Townsend and Phillip Carlisle, except for their sexual orientation, are in the GH mode: handsome, educated, well-mannered, courageous, and loyal to family and friends. So is their romance together; it proceeds slowly, cautiously, unimpetuously, and with several changes of scene around the English landscape. (One reviewer has spoken far more intelligently than I about the contrast between City and Country.) The Townsend family is particularly Heyeresque, with that same sunlight-and-lavender smell of the upper-middle-class families in some of my favorite GH novels, notably Frederica and The Grand Sophy. The by-the-way romance between Brendan's sister Elspeth Townsend and her suitor Harry Edrington could easily be a secondary courtship in a GH novel.

The spark of attraction may be struck in Brendan early, but he could never be so rudely impetuous (or rashly foolish) as to show it before he had some hint it was reciprocated. This stately stiff-upper-lip actually creates my only beef with the story: though they both suffer a little juicy jeopardy, there is about ten percent too little My Partner Is Hurt angst. But ah, there is passion, and steamy sex, at last illumined by a low clear light of love in the hearts of the two men, that promises to last forever.

Just as the pleasure of rereading this book does.