A review by lmrivas54
The British Knight by Louise Bay

5.0

This book is perfect!! Beautiful plot, perfectly imperfect characters, and a great pace. It’s a book meant to be read slowly, like good wine, so you can savor it and enjoy it to the full. I’m only sorry it ended. Both characters had issues from their past, but they were both willing to compromise for their fling, which pretty soon felt much more than a fling. I loved how the love grew slowly, as their relation grew in depth, as they depended more on each other and needed each other more. It was truly romantic and heartfelt.

Violet King worked hard during her college years, while studying in MIT, towards establishing her own company with her college boyfriend. Right before graduation, when they were about to start their company, she discovered that her boyfriend had only registered in his name, leaving her out of it, and was cheating on her with her college roommate. This betrayal caused her to renounce any planning efforts for her future and she started working on temporary jobs as a waitress in New York. She only lived for the moment, had one-night stands and refused to think or plan for the future. However, after several years of dead-end jobs, there was a hole in her life, a dissatisfaction she didn’t know how to resolve. Until the opportunity to work in England offered her the change she needed.

Alexander Knightley was a total workaholic. He lived his work, worked all the time, including weekends, in a race to equal his father in reputation and accomplishments. His concentration towards his job was total, until Violet King was hired to assist him. He was behind in his invoicing and his office consisted of several towers of papers that needed to be filed. He resisted having an assistant, but Violet overrode his objections and snuck into his office to steal his papers. She broke his concentration and tempted him. The chemistry between them was off-the-charts and with so much closeness it was due to implode.

I loved their interactions because he was so grumpy and she always called him on it. Instead of enraging him, it intrigued and amused him. Once they started their “sex only” fling, he found reasons to take one-hour lunches, picnics in the park, Saturday night dinners, even Sunday afternoons. Violet slowly opened Alex up to life, and in return, Alex imbued in Violet a new sense of ambition, the need to achieve something using her qualifications.

Violet’s sense of betrayal from her ex-boyfriend had caused a freeze on her ambitions and Alex helped her out of that void. Then Violet confronted Alex with the real reason he was working so hard. Alex was shocked and dealing but then the return to his bad habits when he was working a big case ruptured them apart.

These two characters were fantastic. They cared so much for each other, they were so considerate and respectful to each other, their sex was hot and their companionship vibrant. They were willing to look into themselves to improve whatever was wrong so they could be worthy of the other. It was a truly romantic love story. I also loved that the sex scenes were the necessary ones to add to the story, not excessive and not ridiculously long, just right. The emphasis was on the story, the journey that these two characters took to be a couple. Loved it!