What did you love best about The Innocent Auction?
While trying to prevent his cousin Beau from getting into dangerous trouble, Deacon, Viscount of Carlisle, rescues a boy from a terrible fate… and this generous action will change his life forever.
The book starts in 1806, when Deacon has to rescue his cousin and best friend Beau from a molly house about to be raid by the law enforcement. While he is there, he sees a boy who is to be auctioned and decides to buy his freedom. Not knowing what to do with the frightened boy, he sends him to his countryside estate, where he is to learn how to make a living working with horses. Almost five years later, Deacon goes to claim his estate after his father’s demise, only to find Tom, the boy he rescued, has become an extremely attractive and tempting young man. The two men fall for each other immediately, but Deacon’s economic situation obliges him to seek and advantageous marriage, and Tom doesn’t think he can stand witnessing his lover marry another person. There is no chance at a HEA for these lovers… Is there?
It does not happen very often that a secondary character steals the story, but it did happen in this one. While well written and entertaining, the insta like-lust-love between Tom and Deacon is difficult to believe. Their behaviour is reckless, kissing and spending nights together regardless of prying eyes…. Although they seem ill-fated from the start, out of the blue the perfect solution arrives. And their HEA is too happy to be true. So Deacon and Tom did not do it for me… Beau’s story, on the other hand, just broke my heart. It seems to me he’s the real hero in this story, acting according to his heart, and his terrible final trying to do the right thing and protecting his best friend, just brought me to tears… I was sobbing like a kid afterwards, to the point I did not find any solace in the main characters’ happy end. My poor, sweet, proud Beau…
Joel’s narration was amazing, as always. It brings the characters alive, and there is real mastery in the way he can easily change from the upper class accent of a Viscount to a low class thug in the next sentence and make them both believable and enjoyable. It turned a nice story into a really enjoyable experience.
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I was voluntarily provided this free review copy audiobook by the author, narrator or publisher