Title: Lord Savage
Author: Mia Gabriel
Publisher/Year: St Martin’s Press 9/9/14
Length: 214 Pages
Series: The Savage Trilogy #1

Overview

I’d never felt so vulnerable, at once both lost and found, as I now did sprawled half-naked across Savage in this foolish throne-chair. His strength was my solace, my comfort, and there was nothing better than hearing the beating of his heart beneath my ear.

Once trapped in a loveless, pleasure-less marriage, Evelyn Hart leaves her home in New York for the glittering ballrooms of London. When she arrives, she meets the Earl of Savage, a dark, powerful man who seems to live up to his name. Despite his noble trappings, he’s also a man who can possess her with just one look. Soon Evelyn finds herself pulled into Savage’s world – a world of passion and seductive games unlike any she has ever experienced. Evelyn’s heart is captured with no hope of escape. But can they overcome the tortures of the past together…?

Savage never imagined someone like Evelyn walking into his life. As soon as he sees her he knows he must have her, no matter the cost, in Lord Savage by Mia Gabriel.

My Thoughts

It’s been a while since i’ve gone back into the realm of ‘historic romance’ – more like since i was last in high school, save for the one off by Sylvia Day that i’ve read in the time period, but in this instance, we get an interesting mix of old school romance, with a strong mix of naughty erotica.

We meet our leading lady – Eve when she’s escaped to London to be on her own and independent for the first time in her life.  She’s from one of the most established families in America, and she was married off at a young age in order to solidify her father’s business.  Now that they are all gone, she’s going to sow her wild oats at her ripe age of 25.

It’s at a party hosted by Lord and Lady Carleigh that her world flips upside down – after coming across a man and woman engaged in a rather active and dirty act – something that she’d never seen before, and in seeing this, awakens something inside her that craves it.  And it’s not just the act that she sees that she craves, but the man himself.

Lady Carliegh invites Eve and the man (Lord Savage) to her country house for a private party of a few other guests – and the nature of this party is something that even Eve could have never imagined.  Maids say that this party is coined as Wanton House – and Eve soon learns that it’s exactly that.

Setting out to learn more about sex and about herself and what she craves, we go on a journey of coming into oneself – for both Savage and Eve.  Both have been trapped in a life that’s not of their own creation, and coming together is not just steamy and passionate, but it’s also deep and emotional.

I think that i don’t just speak for myself when i say that i was rooting for this couple to be more than just a week fling, but the nature of this story – you know that there’s an expiration date and that things will come to an end.  Given that it’s a trilogy, i think that we were left in a great place – not the typical cliff hanger of a series, but one of tension, yet intrigue of the unknown.  The question becomes whether Savage truly is dangerous like everyone thinks, whether the feelings that they started to develop for one another are real, and what will the rest of London do to keep them apart.

The only downfall that i have to say i found with this story is that the wording was periodic to align with the time of the story, but out of my usual vocabulary.  I found that it sounded almost unnatural at times to listen to these conversations, especially when it felt like during some of the hotter scenes they went back and forth between ‘old english’ and current wording – but the detail in each of the scenes was enough to get me past.  Enjoy – and i guess we’ll have to see what happens in book 2.