Review: Thunder & Roses – Book 1 Fallen Angels Series By Mary Jo Putney

Thunder & Roses
Book 1 Fallen Angel Series
Mary Jo Putney
Historical – Regency – England & Wales
312 Pages

I read widely in all romance genres. I also enjoy non-fiction, particularly personal development, business, social history, and occasionally the odd biography, personal memoir, or other non-fiction title. I recently bought Tattoos on the Heart: The Power of Boundless Compassion (about a pastor working in a neighborhood with high gang activity), Difficult Men: Behind the Scenes of a Creative Revolution: From The Sopranos and The Wire to Mad Men and Breaking Bad(about the changes in television), and What Every BODY is Saying
(about body language.) In non-fiction I tend to look for books that will give me knowledge or encouragement in some area. I’m a generally curious person so there are a wide range of topics that I find interesting but psychology, sociology, education, learning and learning styles all rank high on my list.

In fiction what usually draws me to a book more than its setting or sub-genre is the set-up, the situation facing the characters. I like set-ups which put the characters together in close proximity and keep them there…with a lot of tension ensuing.

The promise of that is exactly what drew me to Thunder & Roses – the first book in the Fallen Angels series by Mary Jo Putney.

Clare Morgan is the daughter of a Methodist minister. After losing her father and other friends in mining accidents at the Penreith mine she goes to see Nicholas Davies the Earl of Aberdare to gain his help in bringing much needed change to the mine.

At first Nicholas is totally uninterested in life, seeming to bury himself in the bottle. His grandfather has died of a heart attack and his wife has died the same night in a carriage accident. Nicholas is blamed for both deaths. The general belief of most people is that he slept with his grandfather’s wife and his grandfather and wife found out at the same time causing his grandfather’s heart attack and his wife to flee to her death in the carriage accident.

When Clare first arrives he wants nothing more than for her to go away and leave him alone. He is angry, bitter, and convinced he cares nothing about the mine or the people of Penreith. In an effort to get rid of Clare he offers her a bargain he thinks she can’t possibly accept. He will help her and Penreith if she will sacrifice her reputation by living with him for three months.

Clare surprises him by accepting the offer in spite of the fact that she has much to lose. As a minister’s daughter she has always held a position of respect in the community. However, since their bargain stipulates that she doesn’t have to sleep with him she believes that she is only sacrificing the appearance of propriety…and for a much bigger cause…the lives of those working in the unsafe conditions at the mine.

The part of their bargain that allows Nicholas one kiss a day proves to be a problem for Clare as she finds her attraction to Nicholas growing.

There is a small suspense element to the book too. When Nicholas takes Clare to London they meet up with Lord Michael Kenyon who was once one of Nicholas’ closest friends. Now Michael just wants to kill Nicholas. Later when they return to Aberdare someone does shoot at them. Of course the suspicion is that it is Michael that wants to kill Nicholas, since he has expressed this desire but Nicholas can’t believe that his old friend hates him that much. This leaves a mystery that isn’t solved until much later.

There were a number of things that I liked about this book.

Clare is a very well-drawn character. It would have been easy for the author to make this character confident in her spirituality since she is the daughter of a minister, but she didn’t. Instead, she gave her some struggles with her faith that added interest and tension. Her religious background and her struggle to be what that background dictates is a primal part of her character…without the story being preachy.

Nicholas is an equally well-drawn character. There’s a bit the wounded hero as in spite of his earldom, his money, and his position in the community. He was raised by his Gypsy mother and his aristocratic father, then after his father’s death was sold to his grandfather. His Gypsy parentage has long made him an outcast and though he doesn’t focus a great deal on this the reader feels sorrow for his treatment. He’s blamed for his grandfather’s and his wife’s deaths…wrongly…and the reader feels for him there too. In spite of a background and situation which could have led to him being a dark brooding character there is a lot of fun and levity to him after Clare enters his life.

Though it is clear that Nicholas wants to bed Clare there is a lightness and a sense of fun to his seduction that keeps him from seeming arrogant or manipulative.

There was a vast amount of historical detail in this book but it was woven into the storyline so that it provided a richness of detail without stalling the story. Putney definitely did her research on mining, billiards, and Gypsy life.

This is definitely a book that I would recommend to anyone who enjoys Regency era romance. What’s even better…this is the first book in a series. Here are the other books in the series in order:

Dancing On the Wind: Fallen Angels #2