His at Night

by Sherry Thomas

Book Overview

Love is hottest in the darkness before dawn. Elissande Edgerton is a desperate woman, a virtual prisoner in the home of her tyrannical uncle. Only through marriage can she claim the freedom she... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0553592440
• ISBN13: 9780553592443
• Release Date: May 2010
• Publisher: Bantam
• Length: 432 Pages
• Weight: 0.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 4.2" x 6.9"

Customer Reviews

The best in this series

Interesting characters, flawed but still likeable. Quite ridiculously funny at times. I enjoyed this so much more than its predecessor, Private Arrangements, and it stands alone with only a little reliance on the others in the series.

MORE GENIUS and ANOTHER 5 STAR BOOK

This premise has been used before but Sherry Thomas makes it her own in splendid fashion. The protagonists are Lord Vere and Elissande. Neither are what their superficial appearance would lead one to believe. We also meet again, Freddie, the character from Private Arrangements who Gigi leaves to pursue a truer, more appropriate love. Freddie is Lord Vere's younger brother, and his love story is a second plot running parallel to that of Lord Vere and Elissande. Both stories are wonderfully, and skillfully told, without any confusion that might be expected by blending two stories. Once again, Sherry Thomas exhibits her amazing and skillful use of language to bring us humor, angst, sorrow, joy, and love. Please take a look at [...] if you have never viewed her web site. It says a lot about the genius of this writer, and the myriad elements of her personality that make her one of the very best writers in this genre.

Old School never had it this good...

I read this book in one long, 12 hour stretch, finishing just before midnight. It goes without saying that the natives were restless, waiting for mom to pull her nose out of that stupid kissing book, and see to their needs. But, as is usually the case when the kissing book in question is a Sherry Thomas, it goes without saying that it's a pizza night, remember to brush your teeth, try to get into bed at a decent hour, and interrupt me at your own risk. My DH crept to the bedroom doorway two or three times between 11pm and midnight, gazing longingly at his pillow, and then slunk back to the sofa to (grudgingly) wait out the final chapter. Finished at last, exhausted, and finally settling in for a good night's sleep myself, I sat bolt upright in the bed. "My God," I shrieked, slapping my forehead. "I only just realized it - she's reinvented the old school romance!". My DH opened his eyes and peered blankly at me for a few seconds, and then promptly went back to sleep. Oh well, we can't be on the same wavelength all the time... I don't know why I didn't see it before. The indicators were all there in Private Arrangements. Damaged hero (ok, Camden is significantly less damaged than Vere) meets a ruthless heroine, willing to use whatever means are necessary to achieve her own ends. Maybe the reason I didn't see it is because Gigi from PA is much harder to sympathize with. Manipulating Camden into marriage might have been an act of desperation on her part, but it couldn't exactly be called a matter of life or death. Her act of desperation left her with a certain amount of metaphorical blood on her hands, whereas Ellie traps Vere into marriage for different reasons altogether. She may have been more ruthless in her methods, but it was, for her and her aunt, a matter of survival. She had one chance to save them and she took it, damn the consequences, because whatever they were, they were certainly preferable to slow torture & eventual death at the hands of her uncle. This leaves her in the somewhat unique (in the current romance trend) position of being an *innocent* schemer. I can't think of the last time I've seen that, but I know I have seen it, so therefore, it must be an old school device:P I have a hard time recalling (senility, you know) specific instances, but when I think of old school romance, the head swims with images of innocent, desperate heroines, chained to angry & resentful heroes who are resolved to make them pay - and pay dearly - for trapping them into this travesty of a marriage; where regardless of how angry & resentful they are, they can still manage to gird their loins into poking the heroine at every available opportunity - and hating her for it later. Where this bamboozled hero - Vere - differs from his old school peas in a pod, is that he has very compelling reasons to feel resentful, he recognizes that he's completely incompetent at getting even, and he doesn't dig too deeply, or with any real gusto,

I never wanted this book to end

One of the things I most prize in a historical is that delicious sense of anticipation you get for things being revealed, or figured out - the fun of the eureka moment -and this book so delivered on those moments, over and over. The hero, one Marquess of Vere, is this sort of Regency James Bond, and he goes around pretending to be an idiot (he has for years - that's his cover! - he's given up everything to play this crazy role in service to the crown). The heroine Ellisande is this woman who's been kept in this kind of Gothic isolation by an evil uncle, and she makes this desperate bid for freedom for herself and her aunt by entrapping Vere in a marriage - she was actually going for his brother, but she'll settle for the idiot, as she just has to get OUT of there. I loved this thing to pieces - it's the best historical I've read in ages. While I was reading it, I never wanted it to end.

superb historical romance

Her Uncle Edmund Douglas keeps Elissande Edgerton locked away at his home so she can care for his wife, her aunt who is a pale pathetic laudanum addict. Elissande's goal is to never be her aunt, but if she remains under Uncle Edmund's tyrannical care she will be her aunt. She knows her only safe escape is marriage though that can be a risky proposition. However, she cannot even take a chance on that option as her uncle entertains no one and never allows her to go to the galas. When the neighbor's home is infested by a large rat population, her uncle is forced to host the guests of a house party. One of the attendees is inane big mouth Lord Vere who is apparently an expert on nothing except releasing rodents; even his brother cannot understand what happened to him that turned him into the fool. However, no one understands he performs as the fool as an undercover means to catch vicious criminals. He feels the real fool when Elissande, selecting an idiot, brazenly enters his bedroom causing a scandal that leads to marriage. However, she quickly realizes her husband is brilliant as love and his inquiry lead to danger for both of them. His at Night is a superb historical romance starring a masquerading fool and the woman who sees past his façade. Fast-paced, readers will relish this entertaining tale as love rips away the masquerade of the hero, but also places his beloved in terrible danger. Sherry Thomas' tale is a winner for sub-genre fans, Harriet Klausner

It is rare I read a romance this good

The Marquess of Vere is a secret agent of sorts. In public, he plays a bumbling idiot. In private he is a investigator for the Crown. He's been doing this for years and years and not even his family and closest friends know that he is living a lie. When he meets Miss Elissande Douglas--the niece of a suspect in a case--he immediately recognizes that she is acting a role but underestimates her desire to escape her uncle's household and protect her invalid aunt; thus, he is vulnerable to her attempt to trap him into an undesired marriage. And it doesn't take her long to see the truth under her husband's mask. Thomas's strength lies in portraying these complex--and not always completely likeable-- characters in complex relationships and emotionally intense situations without making you lose faith in their eventual happiness.