Synopsis

Young Charles Elliot, future earl of Wiltshire, and Henry Thomas come from two very different circumstances. When an unforeseen event throws them together, they become inseparable. More than inseparable, they are nearly identical in appearance.

Now bachelors, the introverted Charles and his outgoing friend Henry discover that a loved one has been murdered. They switch identities in London society to better investigate, putting strict rules in place. The most important rule: Do not form any romantic attachments while in disguise.

Charles is met with a dilemma when he is thrown into a peculiar circumstance with Lily Mason, a young lady who is restless in London society. Lily’s sister, Jane, has been working hard to claim what she feels is most important: a title in the form of marriage to Lord Frederick Fletcher.

When Henry tests everything Jane has worked so hard to achieve, she will have to choose to either hold fast to the security of her well-crafted plans, or be daring and try something new.

Review

*Trigger Warnings: death of a parent, domestic abuse, alcoholism, child abuse, threats and attempts of sexual assault (nothing comes to fruition) and harassment, mentions of prostitution (very little)*

This book is the longest I have read in quite a while. The Kindle version has just over 700 pages so needless to say, it took me longer than usual to get through. Fortunately, there were several aspects I thoroughly enjoyed like the longing and themes. Unfortunately, there were a handful of characteristics I began to struggle with as the story chugged on.

Crimson Leaves is a multi-POV beginning to the Crimson Seasons series. There are 4 main characters consisting of the two main couples who each have their own perspectives. At certain points, there are an additional 2-3 POVs thrown in for some extra background information. It did take me a bit to get used to all the POV’s particularly with the main four as they are two brothers and two sisters. That being said, I grew to enjoy the revolving perspectives.

Some of the more apparent themes in this story include found family, forgiveness and redemption. I typically always thoroughly enjoy these themes as I feel so many of us can relate. The characters truly matured while enduring their own struggles, eventually growing into their true purposes. While these are not exclusively Christian aspects, there are mentions of God throughout which I enjoyed as well.

This book is considered both a romance and a mystery. While the romance is blaringly present throughout the whole book, the mystery side gets overshadowed. I found this disappointing, as I have been looking for a good regency style mystery, of which this just did not hit that mark for me. The sheer size of the book could have been a reason for this uneven distribution.

In my opinion, if the book were half its size, the story could have felt more balanced out and the pacing could have felt more steady. The story goes from Charles and Henry being children, to teenagers, to adults. Once they begin their scheme, there are about two weeks worth of getting evidence here and there with short and romantic scenes with their respective Mason sister. The final climax of the story pretty much lasts only a few hours in one single night, while instantly moving focus back to the romance. There was another jarring POV change, signifying a sequel, before ending on even more romance. It was a bit of a whiplash inducing end to say the least.

The world of Crimson Leaves felt very large with traveling being pretty prevalent between different estates and towns. There are scenes of balls and town life which pulled me into the time period nicely. This book stays true to the Regency theme very accuratley in my opinion.

As far as the characters are concerned, Charles, Henry, Lilly and Jane all have their own strengths and weaknesses that become both helpful and a detriment to the story. There is a bit of a misunderstanding plot throughout that almost cost the girl’s their lives. This was a bit painful to get through, but it all worked itself out. My favorite side character is probably Lawrence, the Elliot’s butler. He ends up playing a heavy role in the mystery plot with a past that was both surprising and highly interesting. If nothing else, I am hoping he plays a more central role in the sequel.

As mentioned, I loved the beginning stages of the romances. The longing was palpable, ultimately leading to quite a few swoony moments. With the deletion of some scenes, the overall pacing would have felt less sluggish. Both the men and women show their tender and flirtatious sides even as they are dealing with the societal pressures and expectations of the time. Their feelings felt genuine and I could feel their pain when they were separated. Very nicely written.

All in all, I would recommend this book if you have some time to commit to a longer heavily romantic read. Do not go into this expecting a great mystery read as I feel too much was done off page instead of taking the reader along (minus the very end). As mentioned this is the first book in the series with the sequel not being announced yet but apparently coming at some point. I would not mind seeing a heavier mystery theme in the sequel for sure.