Title : The Lady Chosen (Bastion Club Series #1)
Writer : Stephanie Laurens
Year : 2003 (Indonesian edition first published in 2011 by Dastan Books Indonesia)
Language: English (translated into Indonesian by Anggraini Novitasari)
So, now I’m reading Stephanie Laurens’ Bastion Club Series. I didn’t read the prequel (Captain Jack’s Woman) and jumped instantly instead into this first books of the series. I’m now very much under the spell of Sabrina Jeffries, but Stephanie Laurens has amazed me as much as Jeffries has. When my sister read this “The Lady Chosen”, I was kinda curious: what’s behind it? Since I like reading anything written by male authors and/or something which is “manly”, I thought I was going to read this series. Seven swell-headed ex-spies must be interesting.
Okay, let’s talk about the story. For those of you who expected a great detail “detective” story by a “romance” novel writer, you’d better think TWICE. This ain’t gonna be a good answer you, people. Romance is romance, none other than that. The main core of the story is about two people loving each other, DONE. So, even if it’s a “detective” kind of story, it can’t possibly be GREAT, and I have to admit it myself.
Tristan Wemyss has to find a wife SOON if he doesn’t want to lose all of his heritage money, which he has to get to support his ton-kind-of-life his family member have. So, he gets his eyes on Miss Leonora Carling, his neighbor at Montrose Place, beside which his Bastion Club house is located. Unfortunately, some thief has been plaguing this beautiful lady he cannot persist. Tristan wants to solve this thief thing by himself, but Miss Carling is always shadowing him in his mission. He knows then that this independent lady really wanna lies her finger on this mission herself.
The story goes quite a very long long to come to conclusion. Some may call it “dragging” or something, but I like it anyway. After some “romantic scenes” between Tristan and Leonora, and how they get along together, finally realizing the love between them, the mystery of the thief coming into Leonora’s house is looming almost at the end of the book. Quite relief, right?
In short, I like this one. Oh, I actually “almost” read the prequel, but the first pages of Captain Jack’s Woman made me dizzy with its pathetic writing style. I don’t know, Laurens did well in this “The Lady Chosen” book, but the prequel was annoying me, indeed. Well, some people might not like the long and long plot and the “dragging” flow of the “Lady Chosen” story, but it’s okay with me. Seriously, I don’t mind the “slow motion”, I enjoyed it. Oh, for those of you readers who are used to Orhan Pamuk’s long and long plot and “dragging” flow, you’ll know what I mean.
So, I’m looking forward the next book now: A Gentleman’s Honor.
Rating: 3
