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Title: The Traitor
Author: Grace Burrowes
Publication Info: Sourcebooks Casablanca August 5, 2014
ISBN: 978-1402294990
Genre: Historical: European
I didn’t actually expect this book to be out so quick after The Captive, but here we are. I was dubious about this one, I really was.
The hero of The Traitor is Sebastian St. Claire, who astute readers may remember as Girard, Christian’s torturer from The Captive. This is why I was so dubious about this book- how on EARTH could Burrowes redeem Sebastian and make him hero-worthy after he tortured a previous book’s hero so horribly?
Sebastian is the current Baron of St. Claire, and also half-French, which is how he ended up in France during the Napoleonic War. He was there with his mother, who was dying of some unspecified ailment and needed to go back to France to….die, I guess? And she took Sebastian with her, and he got stuck and joined up with the French military in order to make a living. He has a singular talent for interrogation, and was given a subset of “English officers who were captured out of uniform” to interrogate by any means necessary.
Milly, our heroine, is Sebastian’s aunt’s companion. She comes from a dickish family, as all companions must, and is also dyslexic, so her dickish family thinks she’s soft in the head. She was raised by her aunts, and has a lovey cat named Peter.
So Sebastian is sort of trying to make his way back into British society, but no one likes him, for obvious reasons, and the men who he tortured and interrogated (none of which he killed) keep challenging him to duels. He goes into these duels sort of ¾ hoping they’ll finally fucking kill him already and just end this, and refusing to actually try and kill anyone else (as the challengee, he gets to pick weapons, so he usually goes for pistols so he can shoot the air and go home.) As it turns out, enemies from France are in the process of trying to get him killed, and keep instigating the duels. Mostly, the man is TIRED.
I found Sebastian and his angst (and oh the angst) a lot more interesting than Milly. Milly’s problems were pretty standard- shitty family, stolen dowry. The dyslexia was handled REALLY well, though, and there’s a scene where Sebastian is helping her learn how to sign her name, and they translate the letter shapes into dance steps. That’s really sweet. I did like how their relationship developed, and Sebastian’s aunt was a hoot. I did enjoy being in this version of Sebastian's head- his talent for interrogation is something he just does as naturally as he breathes, and he uses it to figure out what Milly's deal is (she doesn't want anyone to know about her shitty family, when she could have a “Romance Heroines That Are Survivors of Shitty Families” support group if she wanted).
There’s a significant plot turn (it’s not really a twist, it’s too big for that) to keep him redeemable, but I’m not convinced that it works with what we were told he did to Christian. I mean, I know the image we get of Sebastian in The Captive is filtered through Christian’s POV, and this is Sebastian’s internal view of himself (which does have a significant dollop of self-loathing), but…. Eh. I don’t know.
It’s an interesting thought experiment, but I’m not totally convinced it was effective. I admire the ovaries to give this a shot, and I’m glad I read it, because really, this WAS a risk, and it DID take guts, and taking the risks is the only way the genre will grow and change. In lesser hands, with an author who doesn’t have the way with characters Burrowes does, this would have crashed and burned. Here, I’m just not sure it completely landed.
The next book in the series is centered around Sebastian’s right hand man, a Scot, who is snarky and unimpressed with Sebastian’s shit, and I’m REALLY looking forward to that.
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I guess I love to suspend disbelief when there’s such a great ending. The scene where the external threat turns around was amazing. And then it’s followed by another scene with a secondary character that was also moving.
Thanks for the review. I’m pleased to see more of Grace’s books getting read and reviewed at the blogs I frequent. I enjoy her books, and loved The Captive, the first in this trilogy.
Like you, I had doubts that Sebastian could be redeemed without a shift of history. As you mentioned, there was a significant plot turn (a LARGE willful suspension of disbelief) that made things work for Sebastian and Milly. I preferred the first book, but The Traitor was a good read.
The Laird, book 3 in this series, was just released today, and is on my kindle. So… a review of that will probably be forthcoming.
I get irritated by series sometimes, where it doesn’t matter what order the books are read, because essentially it’s a sitcom in which things may happen but nothing ever changes. So not the case here.
This one doesn’t work as a stand alone. Also, don’t read the first one second. I sure wish I hadn’t. Technically I did read The Captive first, but the single detail that my brain chose to recall about the book was that I liked it. Even upon reread, the only things that were familiar were things from The Traitor, and they kind of made everything go through the looking glass.
But as part of a series, it obviously really builds in an incredibly cool way, and I will be careful in future to not only read this series in order, but to refresh my recalcitrant memory about what’s happening in this world, because for a delightful change of pace, it actually matters.
Two of my favorite heros of all time were redeemed bad guys. Roland (Otten) Mathieson tortured the hero in the beginning of the Golden Chronicles by Patricia Veryan and became the best character of the series culminating with his own book, The Dedicated Villian. Perfect title by the way. Also in The Devil in Winter (an all time favorite of many) Sebastian was the villian in the previous book to be redeemed by Evie in a spectacular way. Go team villan
I felt much the same way as you when reading The Traitor, Redheadedgirl. Turning the Traitor Baron into a hero was a challenge and Grace Burrowes definitely stepped up to it. She also did a great job of portraying a dyslexic character and Milly grew on me throughout the book as we learned more about her. Milly’s clever conversations with Sebastian and his aunt were some of the best parts of the book.
To me this was Sebastian’s story all the way and his angst affected me. I actually had to put the book aside for a few days. And, I agree with you kkw, The Traitor is not a stand-alone book. No, no, no.
I had some problems with how the Duke of Mercia was treated by “Girard” in The Captive and then how Mercia acted in this book. I love Christian’s affection for his duchess! I’m wondering if the truth will come out in Michael Brodie’s story, or if it will be just a third point of view. I suspect The Laird will be an emotional read from what I’ve read of previews.
I read The Traitor first because it was sitting on a shelf in the library and I recognized Jon Paul’s artwork on the cover. I am a bit more than halfway through The Captive and I’m not having any trouble with either of them. I felt really awful for Sebastian and I feel just as awful for Christian but Sebastian kept Christian (and all the others) alive so that they can find love in their lives. As shown by the soldiers who harmed Christian and, of course, Anduvoir, there are those who enjoy inflicting pain and those who do it because they feel they have no choice. I’m not bothered that I am reading out of order and although reading all the books will enhance all the stories, I would have been okay if I couldn’t get the other two. I liked The Traitor well enough that I immediately put the rest of Burrowes’ books on hold at the library so I can read them all. I love it when that happens! I was so moved by the story that I would give at least an A- but I enjoyed RHG’s review, as always.
I don’t remember the title, but in the one and only Burrowes I read, one nineteenth-century aristocrat tells another that most men let their valets go after they get married and just let their wives dress them. I just couldn’t suspend my disbelief that far.
I loved 90% of this book and yes, it was a risk after reading The Captive. I thought Burrowes did a great job of handling Millie’s dyslexia, the relationship between Sebastian and Brodie, the wonderful aunt and the love story between Millie and Sebastian. The 10% of the book I did not like was the Duke of Media’s interaction with Sebastian and the Grand Gesture/redemption at the end.