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Can true love transcend the boundaries of rank, painful emotion and past hurts? Lionel Westfall is due to find out. He’s returned to his estate at Wraxham to reform. His father died recently and now he is an earl with an incredible amount of responsibility. For years, Lionel was a rake of the worst sort. He married young to a wife he despised – and she equally despised him - and fathered six sons. Lionel’s sons became strangers, in part due to his wife, but also because of the vast amount of time he spent away from home. Now a widower, Lionel has the duty of trying to establish a relationship with his sons. Another thing that factors into his changed life is that he has hired his first love, Sophie Bowerbank, as tutor to his three youngest sons. Lionel has never fallen out of love with Sophie, but he is determined to show her honor and respect, and fights the compelling desire that threatens to upset the new changes in his life.
Sophie wants to refuse Lionel’s offer for a job. Though she has not seen him in twenty years, the love she still feels for him is palpable. She takes this job as duty, in part to help her father financially. Also, Sophie cannot turn the boys away. She knows they need her. Never, however, did she imagine falling deeply in love with the boys, awakening a maternal instinct in her nearly as powerful as the erotic passion she feels towards Lionel.
It was quite interesting to watch Lionel grow. He has to learn to become a father, and to make a connection with each of his sons. Also, the sexual tension in THE KISSING GATE was done very well. Lionel’s only a widow of a couple of months, so even if he wanted to act on his feelings for Sophie, he knows he must set the right example and do the right thing.
THE KISSING GATE is a wonderful story of two people getting a second chance at love. There’s also the bond that develops between Sophie and the boys, as well as Lionel’s learning to become a father, and finding out how much he enjoys it. Another intriguing factor in this book is the nefarious exploits taking place in the book, and who is to blame for them. These all factor into a well-written and thoroughly enjoyable book by Carr.
Reviewed by Robin Taylor
for The Road to Romance
April 19, 2004
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