Broken Wing-Judith James

Broken Wing
Judith James
Medallion, Nov 2008, $7.95
ISBN 9781933836447

Lady Sarah “The Gypsy Countess” Munroe accompanied by her half brother Ross an Earl cross the Channel to Paris hoping to find their missing much younger brother Jamie and bring him home. Both fear that Jamie was severely injured perhaps killed during the excesses of the recent Revolution though Ross’ hired agents claim the lad is well living at Madame Etienne’s Brothel.

The agents prove correct when the siblings find Jamie in excellent mental and physical health. His benefactor male prostitute Gabriel St. Croix kept Jamie safe inside Maison de Joie for five years. Jamie persuades his friend a catamite to accompany them back to England and Sarah, grateful to the brothel owner’s tender caring of her sibling, agrees. On the journey, Gabriel and Sarah share a strong fondness for astronomy that evolves into a friendship and then deeper into love. However, Gabriel feels his sleazy history starting with being born and raised in a brothel makes him unworthy of the caring innocent Lady Sarah.

This is a unique well written Regency romance with a refreshing spin involving the lead male. Even Sarah is an invigorating character with her atypical actions and reactions as well as her planning skills that Ross realizes would make her a superb general if she was a man. The support cast is solid throughout from Madame Etienne to the brothers to the Ton as sub-genre fans will appreciate Judith James’ jaunty Napoleonic tale of forbidden love.
Harriet Klausner