This RITA® Reader Challenge 2015 review was written by Milena. This story was nominated for the RITA® in the Short Historical category.

Here is Milena's review:

The good: Well, almost everybody we meet. The hero, Sebastian, is one of the nicest, kindest heroes I have ever read. When we meet him, he’s apparently already added a parenthetical (retired) behind his title of rogue extraordinaire, and is drowning his sorrows in a poor man’s drinking hell so as to spare his family the embarrassment of getting drunk. I know, the logic is a bit convoluted there, but it kinda-sorta makes sense if you squint.

The hero also comes equipped with a very nice and kind younger sister, unfairly treated with cut direct by many ladies of the ton because she has been jilted by her fiancé. Which is not particularly convincing but, given that her brother has suffered the same fate – he was also jilted, which led to a general conclusion that Something Must Be Wrong With The Family. Because, well, obviously, when people are jilting you left and right, that’s the only possibility.

The heroine, Helena, is close to Snow White levels of martyred niceness, too, up to and including distributing milk and money to the needy of Whitechapel. In the middle of the night. Armed with a small knife, an attitude, and what appears to be a peculiarly Scottish form of Regency-era jujitsu. She learned the Scotjitsu from yet another exceedingly good character, a Scottish servant/confidant whom she had inherited, together with a castle, from her late husband. Which leads us to…

The bad: Almost everybody who is dead by the time the story starts. Helena’s father was a drunkard, a horrible gambler and an even worse father who managed to lose his oldest daughter to an equally evil Scottish lord. Who then took his winnings – i.e., Helena – to his remote Scottish castle, where he promptly proceeded to… educate her for two years so she would know how to behave properly once he marries her. Like you do. He also told her family that she was dead, so the remaining sisters were forced to fend for themselves, which forced the second-eldest, Lavinia, into a life of sin. Which in turn explains why Helena is found roaming through Whitechapel at night: looking for her sisters, of course.

The downright unconvincing: On one of her nightly expeditions, Helena meets Sebastian, freshly beaten up by some local thugs, bootless and covered in mud. Being the Angel of Whitechapel, she immediately kneels by him, touches his chest and, er, feels overwhelmed by lust for his perfect, if currently somewhat disarranged, body. Sebastian barely has time to see her before passing out, though, so he only feels the instalust when they meet again a few days later in front of a church. But he catches up quickly, starts following her around social events, and finally manages to dig up enough of her secret life that the two make a pact: Sebastian will now use his pre-retirement roguish credentials to search for Lavinia through posh brothels, while Helena will use her impeccable social standing to reintroduce Sebastian’s sister to polite society.

All that said, this is a light, amusing novel that never pretends to go much farther then wallpapering in the obligatory Regency elements. The characters, despite their extreme niceness, aren’t irritating, and if you just accept the plot and roll with it, it’s an enjoyable read. A firm C.