The British Knight, by Louise Bay
Publish Date: December 5, 2017
Publisher: self-published
Format: e-ARC, provided by the author and Social Butterfly PR
Genre: adult contemporary romance
To Buy: Amazon | Barnes & Noble
Rating: 4.5 STARS
(Synopsis) When I’m offered the chance to leave New York to live in London for three months, I can’t pack my suitcase fast enough.
As soon as I touch down I’m obsessing over red telephone boxes, palaces and all the black cabs.
But my favorite place is the tube. It’s wall-to-wall hot British men in suits.
When I’m offered a temporary job working for a barrister, I say, sign me up.
On my first commute into work, it’s a total accident when I lose my balance and fall against the most handsome Brit alive. He’s as charming as James Bond and as suave as Mr. Darcy. I want to lick tea from his hard abs and listen to his accent all night long.
Turns out Mr. Handsome is my new boss. And his attitude isn’t as hot as his gorgeous face, broad shoulders and tight ass. He’s brooding, short-tempered and the most arrogant man I’ve ever met.
As we’re fighting, out of nowhere he kisses me. And I’m pretty sure I see fireworks over Big Ben and hear God Save the Queen.
I wasn’t looking for the fairytale but I might have found my knight in shining armor. The problem is he lives an ocean away.
In 2017 I became a big Louise Bay fan. I've read all the books in this series that came before The British Knight - King of Wall Street, Park Avenue Prince, and Duke of Manhattan - and I have loved them all. The British Knight is just as amazing as the rest, featuring a character we've met before and a new enigmatic and emotionally unavailable Brit - my favorite kind.
Violet King is the younger, flightier sister to Scarlett King who was the star of Duke of Manhattan. She has a habit of being pretty emotionally unavailable herself, never committing to anyone or anything. After losing her latest dead-end job, Violet decides a change of scenery is in order, and heads across the pond to stay in her sister-in-law Darcy's London house. Violet takes a job as an assistant to a very driven barrister - Alexander Kingsley.
Alexander is living in his father's very large shadow and feels constant pressure to measure up. He works 100 hours/7 days a week and he has no plans to stop. He has an amazing connection with Violet, and despite not wanting her to interfere in his work life, her zest for life and her ability to not take everything so seriously start to affect him.
Alex and Violet are on two very opposite ends of the spectrum - Alex is very serious about his job and Violet tries very hard NOT to be serious about anything at all. I loved reading about how both of them start to move toward the middle. Violet learned that being dedicated to a job - and a person - doesn't have to be a bad thing. And Alex learned that he doesn't have to be like his dad in order to be successful.
Of course their road isn't entirely smooth. Changing your entire outlook on life doesn't happen over night or without some growing pains.
Louise Bay is a great writer. I've never been to London before, but she made it easy to picture. Alex and Violet are so different, and yet their chemistry was perfect. The sexual tension was awesome - it was my favorite part of the book. Their efforts to resist each other were admirable, and when they failed, I cheered.
I can't wait for Darcy to find love like her brother and now good friend Violet have. I'm hoping her story is next. If you're a fan of opposites attracting, especially when one of the people involved is a hot, grumpy Englishman, you don't want to miss The British Knight.
Alexander
My workout this morning had been punishing. The harder I worked, the harder I worked out. I was a big believer in that if I wasn’t physically fit, I couldn’t perform as well in my job. And I was willing to do whatever I had to do to be the best barrister I could be. As a result, I’d been up since five, worked out until six thirty, and then had a conference call with Dubai at seven. I hated days when I was late into the office, but this morning couldn’t be helped. My commute had been . . . unusual. The woman I’d knocked into while getting off the tube had been beautiful, and I couldn’t keep the image of her gazing up at me in the middle of Lincoln’s Inn Fields out of my brain. I needed to focus. And perhaps get laid when I got the time. But it wouldn’t be tonight. I’d be working. I had hundreds of witness statements to go through and my opening statement to draft.
In three days, I’d be in court, and that was my sole focus. There was no time to be wasted on fantasizing about women.
As I trawled through my emails, trying to pick out the important ones from the hundreds littering my inbox, someone knocked at my door. I resisted the temptation to growl. I hated being interrupted—I needed a sign for the door.
“Come in,” I barked.
The door swung open, and I could tell by the footsteps that the head clerk had swooped in. “Mr. Knightley.”
“Craig.” I didn’t take my focus off my laptop screen. Craig was an avuncular and charming man in his mid-fifties. He’d been in the business since he was fifteen and had clerked my father. If anyone could interrupt me, he could. And he knew it. Over the years, I’d tried to get him to call me Alex, but he insisted all the clerks and admin staff call the barristers by their surnames. The bar could be a very old-fashioned place.
“I want to introduce you to your new assistant, Violet King.”
I paused, my fingers hovering over my keyboard. I knew nothing of this and would never have agreed to it—I worked alone. Slowly, I turned to find Craig in front of my desk, his eyebrows raised in expectation.
“My what?” I asked. A figure moved in beside him and I slid my gaze to the right. I found myself staring straight at the beautiful woman who’d invaded my thoughts since I’d arrived in chambers. What was going on? I looked away from her, sure that Craig would see my attraction to her if my eyes lingered over her for more than a split second.
Ruined by bonk-busters and sexy mini-series of the eighties Louise loves all things sexy and romantic. There's not enough of it in real life so she disappears into the fictional worlds in books and films.
Louise loves the rain, the West Wing, London, days when she doesn't have to wear make-up, being on her own, being with friends, elephants and champagne.
She loves to hear from readers so get in touch!
Connect with Louise:
Faceboook: https://www.facebook.com/authorlouisebay/
Twitter: www.twitter.com/louisesbay
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/8056592.Louise_Bay
Amazon: http://amzn.to/1WqwGAf
Great review Krista! I read my first books from Louise Bay in 2017 too. I loved King of Wall Street, Park Avenue Prince and Duke of Manhattan. Can't wait to read British Night too :)
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