Review: You Were Made to Be Mine

You Were Made to Be Mine by Julie Anne Long
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review. 

Hawkes was nearly destitute. He'd been obliged to surrender the entirety of his own hard-won fortune to French authorities before he went to prison---it was either that, or face execution by firing squad. 

Christian Hawkes has been free less than a week after serving three years in a French prison for his role as a British spymaster. He has the feeling that he was given up and he has his eye on the Earl of Brundage, the very man that negotiated for Hawkes to keep his life over his fortune. In a twist, Brundage has requested Hawkes help, calling on that favor Brundage thinks Hawkes owes him for saving his life. Brundage's fiancée has fled and Brundage wants Hawkes to put his skills to use to find her, in return, Brundage will pay back Hawkes some of his fortune. Hawkes takes the job as it will allow him more access and opportunity to search out if and how Brundage might of betrayed Hawkes and England. 

How ironic that she'd been obliged to plunge blindly into the world the very moment she'd been made brutally aware that she knew almost nothing about it. 

Lady Aurelie Capet lost her parents and older brother to the bloody French Revolution and while she still has another brother, he lives in Boston. Her guardian may have kept her well feed and clothed, he's never been attentive, so when the Earl of Brundage asks her to marry him, she thinks she's finally going to get the family she's been missing. When her eyes get horribly opened, Aurelie flees and is on the run to England and from there to try and book passage to Boston. A jaded former spy working for his possible enemy and a naïve sheltered woman having to suddenly learn the ways of the world and discovering she's stronger than she ever imagined. 

Men could do such terrible harm. 

And yet it was clear they could love so powerfully well. 

She was glad she now knew. 

If you're not a frequent reader of The Palace of the Rogues series, jumping in here at book five would not be a good idea. The Grand Palace on the Thames is where Aurelie ends up and as so, Hawkes soon follows. The inn and it's occupants, the Hardys, Bolts, Dot, and guests usually have a strong showing in the series books and that goes doubly here. I've read all the books in the series and have started to itch for a new setting, so when a lot of the first half felt more about the inn, I was very restless. If you tried to pick this up here, you obviously would find the setting and these characters fresh but I'm not sure you'd care about them, as you'd miss their emotional background. The inn and the plot about Hawkes searching, trying to learn about Brundage's involvement in his imprisonment and how it could all tie-in to treason was a large chunk of the story, to the point that I would be tempted to call this more a money laundering and treason mystery more than a romance. 

But never had a woman affected him as though she were the weather. As though he could feel her in his bones, like an ache, and on his skin, like sunshine or a breeze. 

If you're a get to it reader, you're going to need patience in this one, Aurelie and Hawkes don't meet until around 30%, he knows who she is, she doesn't, and I'd say the romance doesn't really get going until around 60%. There was almost too much time spent on in their head characterization, the vast majority of story is told from Aurelie and Hawkes heads and how they feel and think in almost lyrical/flowery prose. I'd also have to say their relationship foundation is instalove, Hawkes sees Aurelie for the first time and he's already thinking she's the one. I felt like I read about two people separately falling in love instead of together, if that makes any sense. It's around 70% that Aurelie learns who Hawkes is and how he fits into the whole picture with Brundage and when she again goes on the run and Hawke catches up to her, there's about 10% of them just spending time together. Time I would have loved to have seen much earlier in the book, especially since they just seem to already be in love and this is more about showing their bedroom scene and trying to get an emotional scene from Aurelie that instead came off very forced. 

“You have found me, Mr. Hawkes.” 

And at first, he seemed unable to speak. He was drinking in the sight of her wonderingly. 

“I think I would follow you the ends of the earth.” He said it gently. Almost wryly. 

Even though a lot is shown through their head talk, I'm still not sure I got a firm handle on who Aurelie was, she was sheltered and made a naive mistake of trusting the wrong man but she was all so ethereal in her essence in the story, I couldn't really see her. It was also around 30% that it's mostly made clear as to why she ran from Brundage <spoiler>Brundage raped her</spoiler> and while the scene isn't action shown, she clearly has trauma from it and when she and Hawkes spend that alone time together later in the book, she discusses it and some of what physically happened to her. 

This was a miss for me with the romance, the Grand Palace and it's occupants took up way too much time, especially in the beginning when I'm trying to get to know and get invested in two new romance leads and their romance. The story does end with a knock on the door, so we're obviously going to be staying, I just hope the new couple and their romance gets to take center stage.

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