A Gentleman's Honor (Bastion Club Book 2)

I have thoroughly enjoyed reading the Bastion Series by Stephanie Laurens. Once you skip through all the pages of sensual activities, the storylines are a fun read.

He grinned, a touch devilishly. “Courtesy of our erstwhile commander, I have a gold-plated reason to escape London and the ton, and my sisters, sisters-in-law, and dear mama, who are all up for the Season and now fixed in town for the duration. Of course, they expected to spend much of their time organizing me and my future. Instead, I’m on my way home. Alone. There to sit in my library, surrounded by my dogs, put up my feet, and savor a good brandy.” He sighed contentedly. “Bliss.” With a rakish smile, he saluted them. “So I must leave you to fight your own battles, gentlemen.” They laughed. Charles turned away. “Let us know if you need any help,” Jack Warnefleet called. Charles raised a hand. “I will. And if you need to hide, you all know your way to Lostwithiel.” The group under the trees shifted, broke up. Tony, Jack Hendon, and Tristan remained, watching Charles as he glibly made his excuses to Alicia and Tony’s mother, then deftly extricated himself from the clutches of the other matrons present. As Charles headed toward the stables, Tony took note of his jaunty, cocksure stride. He glanced at Jack and Tristan, briefly met their eyes, then all three grinned and looked at their ladies—Alicia, Kit, and Leonora—heads together as they chatted in the sunshine on the lawn. “I fear,” Tony murmured, “that Charles’s view of bliss is severely limited by his restricted experience of the state.” “He doesn’t know what he’s talking about,” Tristan averred. “True,” Jack said. Tony’s grin widened into a smile. “He’ll learn.” The three of them stirred and headed out onto the lawn.

A GENTLEMAN'S HONOR is the second book in the Bastion Club Series. The Bastion Club is the refugee of a group of men who have returned from war where they operated at spies. They have all determined that they need to marry and have decided to support one another in their quest.This book is about Anthony Blake, Viscount Torrington (who appeared in the Bastion Club prequel CAPTAIN JACK'S WOMAN). Tony meets Alicia Carrington, a widow who is launching her younger sister in society. Alicia has many secrets. Her family is penniless. She is not a Carrington and is not a widow. She is masquerading as such in order to get her sister married and help their family.Tony meets Alicia when he discovers her with a dead body. The mystery of who the murderer is and his attempts to frame Alicia are the mystery plot of this novel. I really enjoyed the mystery even though it got very technical at times. The Bastion Club members work together to help solve the mystery and readers also get to see Jack and Kit from CAPTAIN JACK'S WOMAN again.I liked a lot about the romance as well. Tony and Alicia are a good match. Tony has no struggles against marriage. What drive me crazy is that the only impediment to the romance was Tony's failure to tell Alicia that he intended to marry her. That was really annoying and I never really bought his excuse for never mentioning it. I'm not a fan of plots that rely on people not speaking to one another and this book was a glaring example. Despite that, I enjoyed the characters and their relationship.

A Gentleman's Honor is the second book in Laurens' "Bastion Club" series, about a group of noblemen during the Regency period who are prime targets on the ton marriage mart and yet are determined to pick their own wives instead of having young women foisted upon them by interfering mothers, grandmothers, aunts, sisters, etc. I read the first book in the series, too, and after finishing this one, I've come to a realization: Laurens doesn't have much variation in her characters. It's a lot of hot, possessive guys and a lot of girls who like to think they're independent but becoming melting messes the second they lay eyes on their love interests.That said, the book wasn't bad. Actually, I found it more interesting than the first one in the series, and I got through it a good deal quicker, too, but that was mostly because it had a more interesting plot than the first book. That's another thing about these books. They have plots. I would like to call them subplots, because the main plot should be the romance, but...it's kind of not? I mean, there's lots of kissing and sex and all of that good stuff (so much, in this book, that I actually kind of got bored of it...apparently there's a delicate balance for these things in my mind) but there's a plot that goes through it all of Anthony, the main male character, trying to catch someone who has committed treason, and Alicia really ends up on his radar because the traitor is trying to use her as a scapegoat. And meanwhile, Alicia is hiding her own background in the hopes that she'll be able to successfully marry off her younger sister, Adriana. The "catch the traitor" plot in this one was more interesting than the "catch the creepy guy" plot in the first one, but given the repetitiveness of the characters between the first book and this, I doubt the others in the series will be much different, and I probably won't be reading onward.3 out of 5 stars, but not a memorable 3, if that makes any sense.

I love all her books

I am a fan of Stephanie Laurens, and very much enjoyed the first in this series. I was, therefore, very eager to read this, the second book about the septet of former military men, languishing back in England after the end of the Napoleonic wars. All had succeeded to titles and lands, and needed to marry and produce some heirs.In this book, it is Anthony Blake, Viscount Torrington, who finds the woman he intends to marry. She is a lovely, but slightly older, woman, who is passing herself off as a young widow. This is so that she can chaperone her younger sister through a London Season, knowing that she is so lovely that she will manage to find a wealthy husband. Since the sisters also had three younger brothers, all of whom needed to attend school to be properly prepared for a decent life among the 'ton'. It is, however, a risky strategy, wit the possibility of her being found out in the lie, which would ruin their hopes permanently. Alicia and Torrington are both characters I took too - along with the rest of her family, and of course his comrades!The story line is original, and keeps the reader's attention well. There is also a rich vein of explicit 'bedroom' scenes. At first, this is quite necessary to move along a line of the plot. But, later in the book, some of the scenes could be pruned rather drastically, or covered by allusion so as not to get too repetitive.Ms Laurens is one of a small handful of Regency Historical Romances who writes well, both grammatically and in style. It is always a pleasure to delve into one of her novels. Whilst I do agree with another reviewer that she has been somewhat cavalier with the distances between places, and how long a carriage would take to traverse the countryside, this is largely peripheral and does not really affect the story. Most readers will know that a four hour trip along a motorway today would take two or three days at best in the Regency era. It is the least of the matters that we suspend disbelief for in these easy-to-read romantic adventures.If I have a small niggle, it is the use of the abbreviation 'Tony'. This seems to be to be an anachronism. Anthony was not a common name among the English aristocracy at the time - although, having a French mother, and Antoine being a very common French name, it is very possible that he was named that. However, 'Tony' has very twentieth century American overtones, and it irritated me quite a bit! However, I look forward to reading the remaining six books in the Bastion Club series.

Alicia must be the dullest heroine I have ever read about. We did not find out one reason why the hero liked her and not one reason why the heroine liked the hero. No intimacy or feelings but just lots of boring sex. I spent the afternoon watching the grass grow instead and had a more enjoyable time.

I read this book and liked it. The story line was enjoyable the characters believable and came to live the further along the story In fact I brought the next book inline

Great book to read enjoyed reading this book

Wonderful as always. Stephanie transports her readers to a magical place of intrigue and romance. So brilliant in all aspects.