He wanted to give her some warning.

“My story, it isn’t always happy.”

“No story is, or it wouldn’t be a story; it’d be a paean.”

Redonk Nutshell: Two people who fake their circumstances end up in a forced marriage

There aren’t many authors I could trust to successfully pull off a plot like this and yet have me remaining emotionally invested. But I trust Sherry Thomas, and I found myself really enjoying this story.

Elissande Edgerton is desperate to get out of her uncle’s house, and to take her ailing aunt with her. An opportunity arises when a house party arrives unannounced, and two of its attendees are unmarried gentlemen. Little does Elissande know that her initial choice, Lord Vere, isn’t really a nitwit (though he plays the part BEAUTIFULLY). He is, in fact, an undercover agent working for the government. His deceptive veneer of being the king of faux pas and utterly harmless is actually a blatant lie. Only his fellow agents know this. But as Elissande and Vere begin to spend more time in each other’s company, she begins to…see things, or rather through the things. She comes to realize there is much, much more to Vere than he allows people to see. Though the initial attraction between the two is evident, they both are hesitant to allow their protective emotional walls to fall to the other.

Both Elissande and Vere carry some serious emotional baggage. Elissande has suffered at the hand of her violent and oppressive uncle, having been orphaned as a young child. And Vere has seen the underbelly of the dregs of society and has yet to find the light in the dark. When their paths cross and both target the other in their unrelated schemes, they are forced to come clean, one small bit at a time, and in the process admit what’s blooming between them.

I really enjoyed this book. Sherry Thomas has yet to truly disappoint me. In fact, her books are typically romantic, but lingeringly so. Something about them is haunting. I loved Vere’s thought to himself, when he has his “ah ha” moment:

He used to believe that to forgive was to allow an offense to go unpunished. Now he finally understood that forgiveness was not about the past, but the future.

So. True. Amirite? I’ve already quoted this line to someone recently in my life while chatting about something completely unrelated, yet relating to the past and moving on.

If you’re looking for a historical romance that will leave you with a smile as well as lingering heartfelt sentiment, I’d definitely recommend checking out His at Night.

His At Night by Sherry Thomas

Rating: A

Romance: 3/5              Raunch: 3/5