Some people may believe that authors who write long, extended family series will eventually run out of material. Or become repetitive. For the most part, both of those are probably a true to some degree. Somehow I don’t find that to be the case with Stephanie Laurens and her Cynster clan, though, because so far I’m finding that I’m actually enjoying the books about the peripheral members of the family a lot more than the ones about the central six cousins, AKA the Bar Cynster. Truth to tell, the only one of the extra books that I’ve actually actively disliked was the one about Chillingworth and I was very lukewarm about several of the Bar Cynster books.
I’m not sure what it is that makes this true for me, either. All I know is that The Perfect Lover, Simon’s story, is with a doubt my absolute favorite Laurens’ book so far and this new one definitely falls into the range of being more enjoyable to read, and probably reread and reread, than most of the original six. Maybe it was the artistic setting/tone that the hero, Gerrard, brings to the story but it was a very comfortable read for me. And a pretty nifty little mystery tucked into the story too. Not that I didn’t figure it out fairly early, but I did like the way she unraveled it through the story.