BOUND BY LOVE

Rating:
Summary: Another Leyton classic!
Review: An English gentleman, Alfred Kensington, newly arrived in the colony of Virginia, rewards the bond-boy who saved his son's life by buying his indenture papers, freeing him, and offering him employment in his household. The boy is strong, good-looking, reliable and intelligent, and eager to please. The only fly in the ointment is that he insists that he's actually an earl - that he was kidnapped five years earlier and sold into slavery. The boy has to be mad!

But some years later, when Jared is now 27, he announces that he is going back to England to try to prove that his story is true. He has no expectations of regaining his title and lands, but he wants to confront his uncle, the one who arranged his kidnap. In the meantime, Alfred's daughter Della has fallen deeply in love with Jared, who only sees her as a sister.

The scene then shifts to England; Jared journeys to his old home, only to find that the present earl is his younger brother Justin, whom he'd believed dead all those years. He's quickly ensconced as the earl, lord of all he surveys and owner of all the lands and money which go with the title. But he can't help feeling a lingering, nagging sense of guilt about taking everything away from his brother. Even Justin's fiancee, Fiona, was actually betrothed from birth to the Earl... not the earl's younger brother. And it seems that Fiona would be only too happy to switch her affections to Jared.

It's into this tangled situation that Della arrives some weeks later, visiting as part of a last-ditch effort to persuade Jared to see her as a woman instead of his sister - and if he won't, to say goodbye. But she quickly realises that there's more going on here than she expected; Jared the Earl is a very different man from Jared the merchant in Virginia. Does she stand a chance with this new Jared?

This is a love story, but it's also a story about a man finding out who - and what - he really is. Jared was degraded as a young boy, and he carries the scars of that part of his life still: some visible, such as those on his back, and some invisible and carried inside himself. He can't accept that he is worthy to be an aristocrat, because he was brought so low. His friends and family must convince him - and he must convince himself - that true nobility comes from within, regardless of someone's birth or upbringing. Jared's soulsearching is very well told; sometimes painful, and always engrossing.

Very highly recommended - if you can get your hands on a copy, snap it up! One of Layton's best.

Rating:
Summary: Another winner . . .
Review: Come along on the emotional roller-coaster life of Jared Bellington, the Earl of Alveston, kidnapped and sold into bondage at the very young age of seven, while his six-year-old brother was drowned. Wicked uncles are such a hazard to young heirs who are also orphans! His bondage brings him to America.

There, at the age of twelve, he saves the life of a young boy, is bought by the boy's father, and meets for the first time, the five-year-old Della Kensington. Drawn to each other in spite of the disparity in their stations of life--their purported stations in life, that is, for no one believes Jared's story--they grow up as not quite sister and brother. Jared has but one goal in life; to return to England and reclaim his inheritance. Only then will he be whole again.

By the time Della is nearing twenty, Jared is finally ready for the journey to his past. He encounters surprise after surprise, the first being that the current Earl is that younger brother, Justin, whom he thought dead. The second is the warmth and sincerity of the welcome offered by the new Earl, and his fiancée, Fiona, from a neighboring estate. She has been promised since her cradle to the Earl of Alveston, and is perfectly willing to switch her allegiance to whomever holds the position.

Into this mix comes Della, a young woman wise enough to know that sometimes freedom binds stronger than chains. As the two couples wind their way through Georgian society new dangers appear.

This is truly an emotion-packed story of star-crossed lovers. You won't want to put it down. Most likely, you won't be able to, either.

Rating:
Summary: Another winner . . .
Review: Come along on the emotional roller-coaster life of Jared Bellington, the Earl of Alveston, kidnapped and sold into bondage at the very young age of seven, while his six-year-old brother was drowned. Wicked uncles are such a hazard to young heirs who are also orphans! His bondage brings him to America.

There, at the age of twelve, he saves the life of a young boy, is bought by the boy's father, and meets for the first time, the five-year-old Della Kensington. Drawn to each other in spite of the disparity in their stations of life--their purported stations in life, that is, for no one believes Jared's story--they grow up as not quite sister and brother. Jared has but one goal in life; to return to England and reclaim his inheritance. Only then will he be whole again.

By the time Della is nearing twenty, Jared is finally ready for the journey to his past. He encounters surprise after surprise, the first being that the current Earl is that younger brother, Justin, whom he thought dead. The second is the warmth and sincerity of the welcome offered by the new Earl, and his fiancée, Fiona, from a neighboring estate. She has been promised since her cradle to the Earl of Alveston, and is perfectly willing to switch her allegiance to whomever holds the position.

Into this mix comes Della, a young woman wise enough to know that sometimes freedom binds stronger than chains. As the two couples wind their way through Georgian society new dangers appear.

This is truly an emotion-packed story of star-crossed lovers. You won't want to put it down. Most likely, you won't be able to, either.