Captain Sullivan James Waring only wants two things in his life, bring back his rightful inheritance and revenge on his father though he starts to soften when he meets Isabel Chalsey. Captain Sullivan James Waring a decorative war hero of the English cavalry, during their station in France he met his life friends, Captain Phineas Bromley and Lord Bramwell Johns. All three agreed that after the war Sullivan's mother will paint a portrait of the three of them.
Click here to see the rest of this review...
After the war, Sullivan he found out about the news of his mother. She passed away a month before he was to return home. When he returned to his mother's place, he found out that his called father, Marquis of Dunston, sold all of his mother's paintings around to the nobility. Sullivan furious as to the father that never acknowledged him or his mother and for a life time being called a bastard swore to bring back what was rightfully his, his mother's paintings. Sullivan started to plot his revenge against his father and to return all of his mother's paintings with Phineaus and Bram. So by day Sullivan is the most respected horse breeder in England but at night he plunders the upper nobility homes, being nicknamed as "The Mayfair Marauder" to reclaim his mother's beautiful paintings. All is going well until the night he is discover by Lady Isabel Chalsey.
Lady Isabel Chalsey heard a noise one evening and went head to investigate it. She saw the Mayfair Marauder and tries to stop him by knocking him out. Instead he turns around just in time and not get hit. Though Sullivan notices the young beauty and kisses her. Isabel, or Tibby by her family, is shocked and removes his mask. She sees his face in the moonlight but before she gets to say anything he leaves into the night. Tibby hot and bothered by the mysterious kiss wants to know more about the mysterious man. The next morning Tibby recounts what happened to her father and brother, Phillip. Phillip worried about her say that she is not allowed to go anywhere without a chaperon which Tibby tries to fight against but it works with no avail. So because of it, she reluctantly agrees to join her brother's venture on buying a new horse. Tibby does not like horses, she has a trama when she was young that her and her friend got into a horseback riding incident and ever since then she has not been able to ride a horse.
She arrives to the horse grounds and while her brother is talking to the son of Marquis of Dunston, Oliver Dunston or one of the dullest person that Isabel ever met in her life. She smiles and walk with Phillip and Oliver she ends up at Sullivan's pen of horses. She recognize him as The Mayfair Marauder. While Sullivan shows the beautiful horses to Oliver and Phillip, Tibby conjures a plan, the plan to have Sullivan to come to her place and figure out why he only targeted the paintings.
Tibby cleverly blackmails Sullivan to let her buy his best horse breeder. When he brings the horse to Tibby's place she insist she learns how to ride. Phillip and her family is proud that Tibby is facing her fears and happy to have Sullivan over at their place. As Tibby and Sullivan starts to become closer, Oliver starts to drop by more and more to her house asking for her. Tibby learns through Sullivan that he and Oliver are actually half-brothers and do not like each other. Though Tibby thinks that Oliver will try to get back at Sullivan by finding evidence he is The Mayfair Marauder.
After Tibby convinces her parents that Sullivan is not a bad guy and not the Marauder, Sullivan lets her into his heart. They formulate a plan how to beat Oliver's plan. They succeeding in having Bram to be conveniently dressed as "The Mayfair Marauder" in front of the party where Sullivan will be attending. It works!
Sullivan comforts his father saying that all he wanted from his life was his mother's paintings and the horses. The father and son reconcile to one another and the father gives back his mother's paintings. Sullivan marries Tibby and they live happily ever after.
Best part of story, including ending:
I loved the interaction between Tibby and Sullivan and how they both gradually opened up to each other during the horse training scenes.
Best scene in story:
I loved it when Tibby was asking Sullivan questions about the horses at her estate's fences, like the reason why he loved horses and what he was planning to do with the paintings.
Opinion about the main character:
I love Sullivan, he is the type of guy with a dark past but noble at heart, I like dhow the author used a different hero, one that is a bastard to be the hero of the story I thought it was really cool. I loved how the female characters were very strong and knew what she wanted out of her life.
