Review: The Hellion and the Hero

The Hellion and the Hero by Emily Sullivan
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

2.5 stars 

I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review. 

As a lieutenant in the Royal Navy, Henry Harris went to London to marry an heiress. He hoped that would help him take care of his mother and sister and keep him out of the clutches of Naval Intelligence. When he meets Miss Georgiana Fox on a balcony, they have an instant connection and as his friend Tobias' mother is Georgiana's godmother, they get to have time together. However, when Henry learns that Georgiana is going for a title and accepts a viscount's proposal, Georgiana overhears him saying less than favorable things about her and she spreads the rumor that he is only fortune hunting. Georgiana becomes a viscountess, Lady Arlington, and Henry leaves without getting married. Six years later, Georgiana's husband dies, Henry is now Captain Harris and touted a hero for trying to rescue two young Englishmen and escaping a Turkish prison. It takes another year and a half to get these two together though, when Georgiana's brother Reginald goes to Harris Investigations and wants to hire Henry to investigate threats against Georgiana. 

The heat from his palm slowly sank into her skin and trailed down her arm. 

The Hellion and the Hero is book three in A League of Scoundrels series and while we did get a few looks at Georgiana and Henry in the second book (The Rebel and the Rake) and that book's couple makes a bit of a prolonged appearance in this, new readers to the series could still start here. This started out having Henry worried for Georgiana's safety and obviously still having unresolved feelings from their attraction eight years ago. For the most part, Georgiana brushes off the sense of danger from the threatening notes she's gotten and confronting a man who was following her. After her husband's death, she's been put in charge of two garment factories that were a part of her dowry. She's become a reformist and changed the game by creating safe working condition and fair, living wages. This has angered her competitors as they're losing workers to her and causing strife in their factories. She's being threatened to not sign a contract for a new factory and expanding her business. 

Georgiana's heart suddenly ached with years of useless regret. 

It's the start of a good plot, brings Henry in, gives them a reason to be together, and delivers a sense of danger adding to the tension but the plot thins out as the story goes along in favor of hit elements that the author seemed to want to put in. Kind of inexplicably, when the danger ramps up against Georgiana, it's decided that she should get out of London and go to Monte Carlo. I was excited, because what a setting change, but it doesn't make a lot sense how traveling there would equal more safety for Georgiana. I know she's going to meet a friend there but wouldn't that endanger her friend and make it harder to protect her? Then it's even harder to go along with when the setting of Monte Carlo wasn't fully utilized; they gamble once and it was for only two-ish pages. The glitz, glamour, and atmosphere of Monte Carlo was delivered in the newness of using a lift and Georgiana playing the piano again. It was hard not to be disappointed in the scene change not delivering. It did work to put Georgiana and Henry together in a hotel to make it easier for them to get it on and, nicely, they didn't disappoint here. This was open door (or should I say open carriage and bathtub?) and I liked the heat level here. They didn't have the emotional connection to totally have these scenes hit for me but they brought some heat. 

His eyes were full of hunger. Interest. Desire. 

In second chance romance, I often talk about miss seeing the couple fall in love. The beginning had Georgiana and Henry remembering their first moment meeting and then other moments together in their individual point-of-views. I really liked this, it worked to give us flashbacks to “see” but didn't info dump with longer flashbacks that I know some don't like. They do go on for the first half and I thought this was a little too long and also set-up the characters to be too much in their own heads. Georgiana and Henry are together a good amount of the story but there seemed to be more interacting with each other in their own heads instead of talking with each other and I missed some of their emotional connection because of this. 

His jaw tightened as his gaze bore into her own. 

“You'll have to be quiet.” 

“I can,” she promised, already a little breathless. 

His hand cupped the nape of her neck and drew her closer. “I'm going to test you on that.” 

In Monte Carlo, the Commodore who got Henry into spying (Naval Intelligence), tries to get him back in the game by threatening Georgiana and telling Henry he'll tell him who is behind her attacks is Henry comes back to service. The Commodore isn't really around long enough to feel like too much of a danger and while he even approaches Georgiana about Henry, they both kind of put him to the side. Georgiana decides she needs to go back to London to hurry and sign the contract for her new building and we get a last 10% that reveals the villain behind the threats, Georgiana and Henry learn how they misunderstood each other's intentions when they first met, and the eventual coming together. 

This man she had once thought could be her future. And perhaps still was. 

The plot of Georgiana being in danger because of her reformist attitude in running her factories was thinly there but this felt more like wanted elements added, reformist heroine, Monte Carlo, threats, and then plot added around those elements, instead of plot creating the elements. Georgiana and Henry seemed too in their heads a fair amount of the time and I missed them interacting with each other with talking back and forth more, the romance was missing that strong emotional pull for me. I did like the heat level but the overall story just didn't quite get there for me. If you liked the couple from the previous book though, Sylvie and Rafe spend a lot of time with them in Monte Carlo and sort of get a tiny little epilogue that will make fans happy.

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