My comments on Jane Lark’s The Lost Love of a Soldier are closely linked to a conversation that runs through my reviews of Capturing the Earl’s Love and The Desperate Love of a Lord so if you’re joining me mid-thought, it might be a good idea to click over and start from the beginning.

My ARC of The Lost Love of a Soldier has been on my kindle since 2014 which is why I’d like to start my review with an apology to both Jane Lark and Harper Impulse. For those keeping track, this makes me both a penny pincher and a procrastinator, both of which are descriptors I chose to own. Add single-mom who is gainfully employed full-time while going to school and you probably understand my reasons, but that’s neither here nor there.

I read the description of The Illicit Love of a Courtesan before realizing Amazon ordered the books by the date of publication. This meant that chronologically the series began with The Lost Love of a Soldier which was great as it was the only novel I had access to. That said, having understood the premise of what was effectively book two, destroyed any and all hope for an HEA in book one. I may be starting at the beginning, but this story was going to get dark.

Other readers might have been upset by this, but I was actually intrigued. I’d adored Lark’s disregard for genre tropes in both Capturing the Earl’s Love and The Desperate Love of a Lord. If anything, my inadvertent discovery proved my enthusiasm was well-placed so I jumped in with every expectation that Lark would deliver something extraordinary.

I came up for air two-hundred and sixty-three pages later, emotionally crippled, but thoroughly satisfied by the story. The plot is at moments predictable and I will cop to vividly flashing on the performances of Reese Witherspoon, Romola Garai, and Jonathan Rhys Meyers during my reading, but I thoroughly enjoyed this narrative and how Lark used the Battle of Waterloo to bring context and drama to the experiences of her cast.

I think it goes without saying that I’ll be seeking out the rest of the Marlow Intrigues as soon as possible. Highly recommended.