Reviewed by Chris

TITLE:  A Gentleman’s Position

SERIES:  Society of Gentlemen #3

AUTHOR:  K.J. Charles

PUBLISHER:  Loveswept

LENGTH:  246 pages

RELEASE DATE:  April 5, 2016

BLURB:  

Power, privilege, and the rigid rules of class leave two hearts yearning for connection in the sizzling new Society of Gentlemen novel from K. J. Charles.
 
Among his eccentric though strictly principled group of friends, Lord Richard Vane is the confidant on whom everyone depends for advice, moral rectitude, and discreet assistance. Yet when Richard has a problem, he turns to his valet, a fixer of unparalleled genius—and the object of Richard’s deepest desires. If there is one rule a gentleman must follow, it is never to dally with servants. But when David is close enough to touch, the rules of class collide with the basest sort of animal instinct: overpowering lust.

For David Cyprian, burglary and blackmail are as much in a day’s work as bootblacking—anything for the man he’s devoted to. But the one thing he wants for himself is the one thing Richard refuses to give: his heart. With the tension between them growing to be unbearable, David’s seemingly incorruptible master has left him no choice. Putting his finely honed skills of seduction and manipulation to good use, he will convince Richard to forget all about his well-meaning objections and give in to sweet, sinful temptation.

REVIEW:  

Lord Richard gave orders; it was David who carried them out.

To the world, he was a valet, nothing more. A servant who wore Lord Richard’s livery and obeyed his commands; even his offensively red hair was powdered away to white on his master’s orders. But when he had Lord Richard’s will to enforce, David Cyprian was silently and secretly one of the most powerful men in London. Unknown, unseen, and in charge. The pleasure of it tingled in his veins.

Richard Vane and David Cyprian have been the men behind the curtain, as it were, in the two previous books. They moved the world to fit their needs. They smoothed feathers, twisted opinions, protected friends (and sometimes even enemies), all in an effort to keep the men of Vane’s circle out of trouble and on an even keel. It is a rather thankless task, but a necessary and essential one. Richard protects those he sees as friends, and Cyprian protects Richard. When Vane needs something done, Cyprian is his man. When David acts, Richard uses his name to keep his valet and spy safe. It is a near seamless operation of will and action.

Seamless except for the one glaring flaw in their partnership: they are both head-over-perfectly-blacked-heels for each other. Which shouldn’t be a problem, except Richard Vane is a Lord, and David Cyprian is his valet. Richard may love David. May want to fuck him over every flat surface in the London area, but that doesn’t mean that he can. He is bound by his own rigid code of conduct and to him the very idea that a master could impose himself on a servant (“…because one could never be sure that ‘yes’ didn’t mask ‘because I must.'”) is unconscionable.

Much like in the previous two books, this one is a study of class and class differences when two men from vastly different backgrounds try to come together. Usually with disastrous results (at least at first). But where previous characters had Vane and Cyprian in the background to help orchestrate their rescue from unwanted marriage, murderous intentions, and a very likely deportation (if not hanging), Richard and David are left to pull themselves out of the mess they (and others) have created.

And what a mess it is. One has to wonder if Ash and and Francis have to work especially hard to create the havoc around them, or if it was something born to them.

But while I loved the mess that this group of characters find themselves in (and the truly spectacular way they get themselves out of it) I wanted to really talk about one of the things that made me love this book so much.

Richard Vane had been a hard character for me to really like, over the course of the series. I love him, for as a character he is magnificently well written, but he is a hard man to like. Not the least because he wanted to go behind Dom’s back and toss Silas on a boat to anywhere-but-here.

Still, I can’t deny that I was beyond excited to see that he was an MC for book three. All during A Seditious Affair, I had this running commentary going thru my head that the lord doth protest too fucking much. There was no way that Lord Richard “holier-than-thou” Vane didn’t want to bugger his valet (to be perfectly honest, I’m not sure there are many people on the planet who wouldn’t want a piece of Cyprian, sneaky bastard that he is). And to spend pages and pages pontificating on the virtues of sticking (it) to ones own class, felt like he was trying (desperately) to convince himself, not Dom.

Richard Vane is trapped, by his class, by his name, but more so by his own determination of what a “Gentleman” is and how one must act. The fact that he finds himself on already shaky ground by his illegal desire for men (forget one under his power), does not help things. Vane holds himself to the highest standard. One that Richard could never meet. So is set the battle of wills, inside himself, between Richard who desires action, and Vane who demands restraint.

“It is not so, nor it was not so…”

For a lord could not love his servant, yet Vane could not not love Cyprian. Cyprian who is his right hand, and probably his left as well. Cyprian who is his heart, his spy, his confidant and his friend. Who is also his servant, under Vane’s protection and name–and who is so completely off limits that to cross that line would be fracture that very name and all honor associated with it. Richard Vane is trapped between both truths.

“…and God forbid it should be so!”

For even as Vane could not love Cyprian, Richard could not not love David. This duality–of love, of responsibility, of the very nature and truth of both men–tears them apart. Tears Richard apart because he cannot see a way to be both Vane and Richard at the same time. To have David he must become a man he is loathe to be. To have Cyprian he must become a man cut off from what he desires and needs most.

Yet it also tears David Cyprian apart because he does not see himself two halves of a whole, the way Richard Vane does. True, he could bury David, and let Cyprian the valet, the spymaster, and loyal aide-de-camp flourish under Vane’s rule. But it would mean cutting off the part of himself that needs Richard, that is in love with Richard, and the love Cyprian has for Vane is tied intrinsically in that love that David has for Richard. To ask David to not be both is to deny him of his honor and respect.

“I will not be changed!”David shouted, then dropped his voice to a low, vicious hiss. “I am a valet, and a whore’s get, and a redheaded bastard, and if that is not good enough for you, then you may go to the devil, because I will not be reshaped to fit your whim. I’m better than that. I am very well as I am, and if you cannot lower yourself to fuck the man who cleans your boots, you may not have me.”

Richard, who has lived a life tied up in what it is to be Vane, is flummoxed by this idea. To have David Cyprian is to have all of David Cyprian. For all his lack of status, David his friend is as important as Cyprian his valet. David does not wish simply to be the plaything of his lord, but an equal. To David, being a valet does not make that impossible. To Vane it is painfully confusing.

This fracture between who they are, and what is expected of them, is a driving force in this story. I found the dichotomy fascinating even as it was frustrating to see what is clearly perfect fall apart because they could not see the truth in each other. Trapped by name, class, and a love that is at time breathtaking, these two men struggle to find a balance. There are no easy answers–probably best since there were no easy questions–and the fight they have to wage between themselves could end up devastating everyone around them. To come out on top Richard might have to set about redefining everything in his life.

It all comes down to how much a gentleman can Richard Vane really be.

RATING:  

BUY LINKS:

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