Golden is taking us back in time to the golden age of historical romance, the Regency, with A Season For Treason. If you have read some of Golden’s other historicals, you wll recognize some of the names in this book.
We start with Mary. She is in her first Season in London, being squired around by her cousin. He’s looking for a bride, and Mary knows the perfect one for him, Lady Arabella, but she’s being courted by Hartford, called Rex.
One year later, Mary is about to go back for her second Season. Her cousin and Lady Arabella got married, now her aunt and uncle are all focused on her. Not just that, but her friend Evie has asked for her and their friends Josie and Lily to go to London for the Season. She has a good reason for this. You see, Evie’s uncle is the spy master, and he’s on the hunt for a traitor and one who planned an assination. Evie is going to help find out who it is, and she needs the help of her friends. She also tells everyone that Hartford runs a secret society, and the society might be involved in the issue.
Mary, Lily, and Josie go out on their Season and start to find information. One night, Mary follows Rex into the garden at a ball, wanting to see if he is meeting with someone suspiscious. He catches her, and kisses her.
Rex does indeed have a secret society. It’s a very debauched secret society. Pretty much anything goes in this secret society, and on this night, he’s watching all the things go. He’s also bored. He’s not interested in any of the women that are there, even ones he’s played with before. Rex decides that maybe he’ll get a wife. They will be able to come play together, he’ll get his heir, and it will all be good.
Then, at a ball, he meets Mary, well, meets her by kissing her in the dark in the garden.
I like Mary. I think that she is very smart and very tricky. I think that she just expects to be overlooked, so she expects everyone will overlook her, which makes it possible for her to hide in plain sight. If your normal is to feel overlooked then you just settle into that. I do like that Rex really sees her though, and sees the side that she’s been working on hiding.
Normally I would say that the female main character is a little naive about love and marriage, but in this case, I think that it’s Rex. He didn’t realize what his feelings were, but he just thought that he’d be able to act as normal, even after the marriage, and he was just so surprised by having any other kinds of feels.
I can’t wait to see what’s going to happen next.
OK, that’s all for this one. Go check it out! Happy reading!
In Between the Pages 