Review: Turner #1: Unveiled

Title: Turner #1: Unveiled

Author: Courtney Milan

Date of Publication: January 25, 2011

Formats Available:Paperback, E-Book

Buy This Book: Amazon

Synopsis: Ash Turner has waited a lifetime to seek revenge on the man who ruined his family--and now the time for justice has arrived. At Parford Manor, he intends to take his place as the rightful heir to the dukedom and settle an old score with the current duke once and for all. But instead he finds himself drawn to a tempting beauty who has the power to undo all his dreams of vengeance....Lady Margaret knows she should despise the man who's stolen her fortune and her father's legacy--the man she's been ordered to spy on in the guise of a nurse. Yet the more she learns about the new duke, the less she can resist his smoldering appeal. Soon Margaret and Ash find themselves torn between old loyalties--and the tantalizing promise of passion...

My Review:

Even though Unveiled was far from bad, it was pretty good even, there was just nothing that set it apart from the hundreds of other historical romance novels. Sure, I enjoyed the story and liked the characters but at the end of the day there wasn't anything fresh or original to really get me excited about this book. Milan is a good writer and I liked the story but overall it was extremely forgettable.

Writing this review is going to be difficult because there just isn't much I can say about this novel. While it did have its interesting and entertaining moments there just wasn't a single thing that made this novel new or exciting. On one level I really did like this novel but on another level it's difficult to like a novel that has so little going for it in terms of originality.

Margaret was an entertaining heroine and Ash was a dashing love interest. I really liked Ash because so often in historical romance novels the male lead is always gruff and unfriendly and later grows to love the heroine but Ash was completely opposite. Coming from a poor family he didn't have the same level of arrogance that many historical romance love interests do and he was completely  to take care of his brothers. While Margaret's character faded into the background Ash's slightly unusual personality added a bit of spark to the novel.

Perhaps the most annoying part of this novel was figuring out relationships between characters. I couldn't quite figure out what was going on with Margaret's parents, during the novel she is taking care of her father, the duke, in the guise of a nurse but I was never quite clear if that was her real father or if her parents hadn't been married, or perhaps some other explanation. Likewise it was mentioned that Ash and his family were Margaret's distant cousins but I couldn't figure out how exactly they were related.

Fans of historical romance may really enjoy this novel but anyone on the lookout for something fresh and new may want to skip this one. I wouldn't completely write it off because it wasn't bad, it just wasn't very interesting.

3/5