Book Review: The Courage of a Lyon by Linda Rae Sande
Linda Rae Sande is an interesting author with an impressive resume. Before she dove into the world of regency, her about page says she was a 3d animation expert who worked on the hit movies SHEK and SHEK 2. How exciting is that? Since these movies take on a bit of a medieval flare, it was probably just a hop, skip, and a jump until she landed in the historical romance genre and, ultimantly, the regency era. If you are looking for an ogre romance or awful men, you won’t find them in the Courage of a Lyon. This two-for-one romance novel contains the side-by-side love stories of how two charming brothers met their lovely, hoyden wives.
Summary of The Courage of a Lyon
The Courage of a Lyon is a two-for-one romance novel, which means it contains two separate love stories that parallel one another throughout the book. The heroes of the story are two brothers who get along fabulously. One is James the Earl of Leicester, while the other is his younger brother Captain Charles Audley. The two brothers grew up close in age and are still good friends.
Charles did not long to have the Earldom, though he helped his brother care for it. James loves his place in society.
With crops failing due to England’s rains that year, the Earldom is sinking into debt quickly. James is hunting for an heiress to marry to save his title from ruin. But so are many other peers of the realm. In fact, they all head to Cambridge to seek the hand of the wealthy heiress, Lady Stephanie.
James is on his way, too, until he meets a stranger walking along the side of the road. She is about the most beautiful woman he has ever seen, and it turns out she is also an heiress. Love blooms in a combustible, explosive way between the two, and they are married quickly.
This love is paralleled and even contrasted in the book with the slow and easy-going love story between Captain Charles Audley and Miss. Amy Sinclair. Charles is wounded in one of the last battles to defeat Napoleon, and who do you think is his nurse? Amy! She chose to follow her father into battle, or “follow the drum,” so to speak. Well, she falls in love with Captain Charles Audley when she is nursing him back to health, and it just so happens he falls or her too. However, when it is time to return to England, they get separated.
Mrs. Sinclair is confident that Amy is “ruined” from her time spent in the field hospital. Hence, she sets her daughter up with an appointment with Ms. Bessie Dove-Lyon, the Black Widow of Whitehall.
While you won’t see as much of the Widow’s point of view or life in this book as you do with The Pretty Little Lyon, she plays a pivotal role. Eventually, Charles wins Amy’s hand in one of the Widow’s games, and they get their happily ever after too. This second plot is similar to other Lyons Den books. If Courage of a Lyon sounds like something you might like, go ahead and preview the first three chapters for free!
Noteworthy Moments From A Lyons Den Regency Romance
The Courage of a Lyon is part of the ever-expanding and massive Lyons Den series. It is now over 25 books long. Suppose you have stuck with it from the beginning. In that case, you will see the widow, Ms. Bessie Dove-Lyon’s character, go from being shrouded in mystery to a pivotal and more open part of the books. She and many of the staff at the Lyons Den are featured throughout the series. This one includes some back story on Titan, one of the ex-army men and guards at the Lyons Den gaming hell, if you are interested in that story expansion.
Furthermore, this story is a two-for-one romance, so every couple of chapters, it bounces between the POV of the brothers to tell each side of their story as to how they found their wives. While Charles is supposed to be the lead hero, I find myself more drawn to the sub-romance tale of James and Lady El. (The heiress he meets on the streets).
The father figures in this book reign supreme as the family goes. They are portrayed as the more easy-going and well-liked characters. In fact, Miss. Amy Sinclair’s mother is pretty self-centered and despicable at times. While Lady El is constantly fighting with her mother so you can directly compare and contrast the parental relationships. This book is a pro father/pro men book.
Finally, the last noteworthy part is that it is an age-gap romance. James is 35, and Lady El is 22. It was common in the Regency era to have age gap romances where younger women would marry older men to secure heirs. However, this volatile love story between the two is not as common in regency literature written in the modern era.
Four Star Regency Romance Novel
The Courage of the Lyon is a decent Regency romance novel. I recommend reading it if you have been keeping up with the series. When Charles is injured in the war, his injuries play a large part in the story. His character is written with some insecurities. Eventually, he is able to overcome these issues. This book also takes on quite a bit of representation of the disabled community.
However, it can sometimes be a little crass when referencing intimacy or even a little vulgar.
Extra Steamy Regency Romance Novel
Since this is a two-for-one regency romance, you see the intimacy of both couples instead of just the one. This means that intimacy is peppered throughout the book. Furthermore, it is highly descriptive, a little inaccurate, and somewhat vulgar in how it is described. This might be the book for you if you are looking for a rough around-the-edges love story. Still, if you like flowers and beat-around-the-bush intimate references, you may want to skip this one.
The Courage of a Lyon gets five flaming hearts out of five on the steaminess scale.
Do you want to check out other reviews for books in the Lyons Den Series?
Where Can You Buy this Book?
You can get this book on Amazon via ebook or paperback. At the time of writing this post, you could also get it through the Kindle Unlimited program if you have a subscription. If you haven’t subscribed to the Kindle Unlimited Program and are an avid reader, check out these awesome first-time subscriber discounts. They will pay for themselves in the book savings alone in no time:
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Lyrica Lovell
Lyrica Lovell is a regency and historical romance author. She loves to pen historical romance novels hailing from England and Scotland in the early 1800s. Lyrica fell in love with the genre when she was 16 and has read over 400 books within the regency romance sphere. Not only does she love to write the genre, but she loves to read just about everything in it. Stick around for fantastic book reviews, short stories, and more.
