Emily Bascom

‘You…are the best man I know. She will need a guardian. Please, promise me you will do as you said and care for her—watch over her. Find her…a husband. It pains me to ask…but I am all she has, and without me…’

March's theme for the #TBRChallenge was grumpy, and since I love me some grump, I had a plethora of choices. I went with this book that has been in my tbr since 2009, the synopsis was this: Lily is horrified to learn her late brother has placed her under the guardianship of brooding Major Daniel Westhaven! He's insufferably rude and arrogant, and clearly disapproves of her—so why does Lily find herself longing for his touch?
Battle-scarred Daniel wants nothing to do with society, and intends to swiftly fulfill his promise and find troublesome Lily a husband. Only, she brings light into his dark life—and his even darker heart. But surely a beauty like Lily would never choose a beast like him….
Insufferably rude! Wants nothing to do with society! His dark life and his even darker heart! I pegged this guy to give good grump and for the most part, he did.

This starts off in South Carolina where Major Daniel Westhaven is battling the uncouth, upstart colonists in 1781. He's alongside his friend Pevensey and as they both lay there in the aftermath of battle, Pevensey reminds Daniel of his promise to see to the care of Pevensey's sister Lily if anything should happen to Pevensey. Daniel is also injured, not sure he is even going to make it but grants Pevensey his dying wish to promise to be guardian to Lily. We then zoom almost a year and meet Lily who has just learned that the cousin who inherited the house she lives in after her brother's death, plans on selling it. Lily decides it's time to turn the charm on and find herself a husband, even though the last couple months a mysterious benefactor has been sending her money to live on.

At the ball Lily is working her magic and with some rumors of wealthy guardian helping her out, Charles Denham, a wastrel son waiting to inherit, is starting to sniff around Lily. Lily makes eye contact with a tall, dark, brooding man and can't believe how rude he is with his staring. It's all very P & P with Daniel thinking Lily is spoiled and empty headed because of how she flirts and Lily overhearing Daniel calling her vacant. They're snippy to each other with these misunderstandings until around the 40% mark where they start to thaw as they get to know one another better. With Lily learning that Daniel is her benefactor, she goes back to his home to stay with him where there's a kiss in the rain that didn't really make sense with where it was timed in the story, Lily gets a fever that softens Daniel even more towards her, and the reader learns that Daniel lost his leg from the knee down in the war.

The second half has Lily not feeling worldly enough for Daniel and Daniel not wanting to take advantage of the situation because he is her source of security (Yay for him recognizing this!) but mostly, him not feeling worthy because part of his leg is gone. His insecurity with his leg I could go along with but there was this constant him not feeling good enough to step into his father's shoes as the Viscount because he wasn't as good a man as his father. Daniel came from a loving home and the author just didn't do a good enough job explaining or making me believe why Daniel went on and on about this.
Sidenote: Daniel's highwayman turned Lord daddy and his mother's romance sounded fascinating, so I checked to see if they had their own book and surprise!they do, it's first in this Westhaven series. Kind of shocking because, usually, author's don't kill off the main romance couple from book 1 in book 2.

We get a friend of Daniel's showing up that was good series baiting (and maybe it's the books I've been reading lately but I thought I sensed some sexual tension between Daniel and Captain Connor O'Flaherty??), a secret waltz, and Charles Dunham showing back to bring some havoc with a drugging and kidnapping. The last 20% really brings in the head-scratching daddy issues, Lily being sent away, then learning about Daniel's insecurity, and then I love yous for an ending sex scene. Daniel was a mildly seasoned grump, so a passing grade.… (mehr)

The novel gets off to a slightly slow and awkward start, and nearly lost me during the first couple of chapters. However, it got better as it went on, and parts of the story were quite good.

The prologue takes place in South Carolina in 1781 as the day is going badly for the British during one of the last battles of the war. Major Daniel Westhaven has been very badly wounded: beside him, his friend and second-in-command, Captain Robert Pevensey is dying. Pevensie had arranged that if he should be killed while Daniel Westhaven survives, his sister Liliana (Lily) will become Daniel's ward: in his last moments Robert extracts from Daniel a promise that he will look after Lily. (Their parents had died in an accident when Robert and Liliana were young so she has nobody else to take care of her.)
Daniel does survive his terrible wounds, but it is nearly a year before he arrives back in England, having been medically discharged. His father (that's the hero of "The Rogue's Kiss") has just died: and Daniel has inherited the title of Lord Westhaven, which he does not use, and the estate at Oakridge. Between his injuries, and the deaths of so many friends and comrades, he has become a sad, bitter and bad-tempered man, who can be very rude and arrogant, and cannot take seriously the possibility that he might make any woman a good husband.
When Daniel seeks out Lily to honour his promise, they get off to the worst possible start and both form a very poor initial opinion of the other. So much so that, inspite of the fact that she is about to lose her home, Lily is initially very unwilling to accept Daniel's offer of help or that he is now her guardian.
I really tried to like the heroine but she acted so immature through most of the novel. Too much pride, and stubborness where she shouldnt be. Both too stubborn actually and Daniel too consumed into his own self-pity over his injuries. I love injured heros but I wanted to slap Daniel sometimes. The worse part was when Lily gets angry that Daniel has refused a suitor her hand in marriage when she doesnt want the other suitor in the first place and instead of telling him in a grown up manner that although she does not wish the marriage that the next time he should respect her and what she has to say as they had agreed early on but no she leads him to believe she is upset because she wanted to marry this other suitor. There was too much miscommunication and misunderstandings between Lily and Daniel.
Really overall too many unneccesary events that by the end i just didn't see what Daniel saw in her or how they fell in love since the both spend much of the time arguing and very little time getting to know each other.… (mehr)

If you're a fan of sweeter, romantic Harlequin Historical reads, you owe it to yourself to pick up "Major Westhaven's Unwilling Ward" by Emily Bascom. This was my first read by this author, but I was caught up in the well-paced story of a man and a woman, both fighting their own demons, who discover that being loved for oneself is the greatest gift.

Lily must marry. There's really no other viable solution since her brother died in the war and she can no longer support herself and her loyal maid. Not that marriage is BAD, but Lily knows that she will have to mask her inquiring mind and intellect; instead turning herself into a simpering, fawning doll in order to snare a husband amongst the ton. When a handsome, yet distant, stranger turns his disapproving eyes her way, she finds it almost impossible to maintain her disguise. When the stranger informs her that her brother made him her guardian, she's furious. Yet, what exactly can she do about this? Fall in love of course!

Daniel returned from the war injured and depressed. After a year of healing, he reluctantly makes his appearance back in society...but only to find out about his 'ward'. How can this be the same woman he felt he knew from his best friend? She doesn't seem to care that her brother is dead and flits about like a gadfly. But it doesn't take long for Daniel to learn that she has secrets...but unlike the secret he's keeping from her, her secrets make him long to be a whole man who could love again.

Ok. It's not exactly a new plot, but it's done very well and the writing and pacing kept me engaged and interested. Although there were times I wanted to smack both lead characters, it wasn't enough to make me stop reading. There isn't much of a secondary cast, and the 'suspense' side plot was rather more of a cliche than I would have liked, but all in all I'm glad I read Emily Bascom's story. Just the thing for a lazy summer afternoon.… (mehr)