The Lawrence Browne Affair

The Lawrence Brown Affair (The Turners #2)
By  Cat Sebastian

ISBN: 9780062642516
336 Pages
Available in Paperback, Audiobook, and on Kindle

Synopsis:

An earl hiding from his future . . .

Lawrence Browne, the Earl of Radnor, is mad. At least, that’s what he and most of the village believes. A brilliant scientist, he hides himself away in his family’s crumbling estate, unwilling to venture into the outside world. When an annoyingly handsome man arrives at Penkellis, claiming to be Lawrence’s new secretary, his carefully planned world is turned upside down.

A swindler haunted by his past . . .

Georgie Turner has made his life pretending to be anyone but himself. A swindler and con man, he can slip into an identity faster than he can change clothes. But when his long-dead conscience resurrects and a dangerous associate is out for blood, Georgie escapes to the wilds of Cornwall. Pretending to be a secretary should be easy, but he doesn’t expect that the only madness he finds is the one he has for the gorgeous earl.

Can they find forever in the wreckage of their lives?

Challenging each other at every turn, the two men soon give into the desire that threatens to overwhelm them. But with one man convinced he is at the very brink of madness and the other hiding his real identity, only true love can make this an affair to remember.

My Thoughts:

The Lawrence Brown Affair may be the second book in the four title The Turner's series, but it's actually the first one I read. I happened across a copy of it at my local library and immediately picked it up. Before this book, I didn't know that M/M romance novels were a thing, much less M/M historical romances. I enjoy reading historical romance, so I love finding new variants to try.

The main character in The Lawrence Brown Affair is Georgie Turner, brother of Jack Turner from A Soldier's Scoundrel. (Hence the "The Turner's" series title, which was actually originally created by fans, as the series was originally released without a set designation.) Georgie is a morally ambiguous, chaotic bi confidence artist who loves his family above all. Jack T. was a vanilla villain, doing bad to help others, whereas Georgie T. is definitely less vanilla and playing cons to get ahead in life. That is, until he starts to develop a conscience and gets himself in trouble in the process. To shield him from said trouble, his brother sends him on a job to investigate Lawrence Brown, the "mad Earl" of Radnor. 

Both Lawrence and Georgie are extremely likeable characters, despite their intentional character flaws. They both have some deep background damage that causes them to see the flaws within their selves and to not trust others, and as such, their relationship is slow to develop. Lawrence has the worst of it. He spends his days hiding in his crumbling estate, fearing for his own sanity and being effectively a social recluse. Which makes him pretty much wholly inexperienced in physical relationships. The couple only get physically intimate about three times in the whole book. Remember how I said that I read this one first? Yeah, I was expecting this to be the standard in all of the books in the series, so I was pretty shocked when A Soldier's Scoundrel turned out to be a lot more physical. But I have to say that, in the case of The Lawrence Brown Affair, this lack of physical scenes is perfect. It really drives home the emotional state of the characters without forcing in unnecessary scenes just for the sake of sex.

Just like with it's predecessor, The Lawrence Brown Affair offers a solid non-romance side plot. There is family drama, a mystery, a bit of smuggling, and a touch of danger. There are new side characters introduced who greatly enhance the story. I absolutely love Lady Standish and what her character signifies in a time period where women were not really free to make their own choices, much less be scientists and free thinkers. How Lawrence accepts her at face value and thinks nothing of it endears him to me even more.

When they introduced Lawrence's son, I wasn't sure how I was going to feel about it. Kids appearing in intense romance novels is always a little weird to me. But it added another depth to the characters and seeing how they adapted to act as a family was nice. The book in whole was a sweet story and I enjoyed reading it. The Lawrence Brown Affair is by far my favorite book out of the entire The Turner's series.

Parent's Guide:

100% not for the kids! This book is adult in nature, with graphic sexual situations. Absolutely 18+