Andrew: Lord of Despair (The Lonely Lords) Mass Market Paperback – August 2, 2016

I have been devouring Grace Burrowes novels like food on a desert island- If I see a preordered one download onto my Kindle, chances are 50/50 that I bother finishing what I'm already reading. I really like her writing. Andrew, however, felt a little odd to me. You may like it just fine.In general, I think of Burrowes' heroes as "Regency men from 2030" because they are everything you'd want an enlightened man to be, and even more so than many guys are today in terms of "no means no" and also "yes means yes". Every so often I find this jarring, but the characters are just so darn nice, I can't help but like them and would rather have unrealistically decent heroes than realistically misogynist heroes. (If only all heroes were like these guys!) Andrew is no exception. He's had quite the trauma in his life and it has made him make choices another might not make.Potential mild spoilers. I have obfuscated some, but proceed at own risk.Astrid is a great heroine. She married a man who seemed the opposite of her unsteady gambler of a father and lived to regret it. Luckily for her, her husband did not. She's practical, loving, nice, and yet goes after what she wants. Which is good because she wants Andrew and Andrew keeps kind of sort of running away from her. He has his reasons, but we're not privy to them. We can guess. About halfway through the novel we start to get actual clues about the details. Which leads to my main complaint.I'm now used to novels told from the perspectives of our hero and heroine, and sometimes other characters. But while we know what's going on with Astrid and occasional secondary characters, we couldn't see what Andrew was thinking. Either he was being cagey with himself by blocking out his past trauma and all the decisions he's made because of it and his reasoning, and... or it was merely a plot device to keep us from knowing the full truth for longer. Either way, it left me, as a reader, disconnected from Andrew. I knew he was being an ass and making bad decisions because *trauma* but they were very specific decisions based on specifics of the trauma the reader can only guess and judge. And I guessed most of it very early so it was just annoying not to have the details, especially when I then didn't really buy how everything fit together. By the time the specifics were revealed I was more annoyed than anything because I'd already spent a good long while judging Andrew against what I thought the backstory was. And I was close enough that my negative judgments held.My version is also littered with notes saying "or X" where X is the name of the bad guy and someone else is suspected. If the book was 1/3 shorter and had another half dozen people in it, there might have been some doubt, but not here. This "mystery" too was dragged out far too long. I had several instances where I thought, "I wish these guys would just talk to each other". On the other hand, having the guys all be involved in a Big Misunderstanding unrelated to the coupling is kind of entertaining for the gender reversal.Those two things were pretty annoying and interfered with my enjoyment of this book. But not enough to stop reading. The main characters spend a good deal of time together, which is enjoyable. They spend their time in somewhat novel ways, different from a standard spinster romance. It's clear that the friends and relatives care about each other. Grace Burrowes' prose is always a pleasure to wallow in. I wouldn't recommend it as a first GB book, but I wouldn't advise skipping it either. Andrew has developed some unusual skills in his life and Astrid really is a champ. This book just proves that the author is human and flawed. I'll still be preordering the next several books as soon as they're available.

I just finished reading `Andrew' which picks up several years after the events that took place in `Gareth' and I was stunned by the changes those years have brought. Gareth and Felicity have a growing family, Gareth's brother Andrew has decamped from the scene to wander the world and Felicity's sister Astrid has been unhappily married and equally unhappily widowed.Despair is part of the title of Andrew's book but there is enough despair to share. Andrew's despair is real but based on a nasty piece of misinformation. Astrid's despair seemed to me a classic case of pre-natal depression complicated by her husband neglect and plain old loneliness. Gareth has missed his brother, Astrid the friend who made her feel safe and flirted with her innocent, younger self. Felicity is concerned for a sister fading away before her eyes and Gareth will soon face a crisis he can't control. Andrew could have been subtitled `Lord of Guilt' and there is lot of unresolved guilt plaguing not just the two leads but spread out among a cast of well written secondary characters as well.This book is not just about the sweet and sexy romance that begins to bloom between Andrew and Astrid, who have to work hard for their HEA, but a love story that encompasses two brothers, who have survived a family tragedy, but carry the burdens of grief and guilt and a pair of incredibly strong, soon to be tested sisters. Add in the support of their newly discovered brother David who has one very strange set of skills and whose story will be told in a book set for release next year, the re-appearance of the always fascinating Douglas who is up next and you have a cast of characters bound together by love, loyalty, grief, regret and at times well placed and misplaced honor. To me this is Grace Burrowes greatest strength - the ability to write the emotions and fears that bubble beneath the surface of her stories. Families are unbelievably complicated and navigating those dangerous waters takes courage and Grace has done it brilliantly across a number of amazing, inter-connected books that I have followed since the debut of `The Heir' and the rest of the Windham family and into the Lonely Lord series.I fell in love with both Andrew and Astrid, I laughed, I cried and I was overjoyed to see David and Douglas again. I look forward to the release of each of Grace's books because, while each can stand on its own, the real joy for me is re-visiting the familiar characters I have come to care for who appear again, whose lives I can catch up with as each new story unfolds. I couldn't possibly pick a favorite Windham or choose one Lonely Lord over another BUT.....Ah, Douglas, I have been waiting a long time for you, Gwen and little Rose; actually since you made your first appearance in this author's first book. January 7th can't come soon enough for me!

I like this author's work, this story was excellent

Astrid fell in love with her sister's brother-in-law, Andrew, when she was just seventeen years old. However, Andrew was guilt ridden over a boating accident that left a few of his family members dead. He feels unworthy of Astrid and leaves town. Astrid chose to go forward with her life and eventually married. It was a fairly comfortable marriage and suitable by the standards of the day, although loveless. Since she is safely married Andrew decides that it is safe for him to return home. Wen he arrives home he learns that Astrid has been recently widowed and is possibly carrying her deceased husbands child and heir. The sexual tension is still there for both Astrid and Andrew which makes for a wonderful story full of sexual tension and emotion. I loved the main characters and the story line fun, interesting and a bit of a mystery. You don't need to read the previous books to enjoy this stand-alone. However, it was almost like going home to read about Gareth (Andrew's brother) and Felicity (Astrid's sister) and to catch up on their lives. I loved the book and look forward to the next book in the series.

This is the fifth book in the Lonely Lords series that I have read. Initially, I was a bit out of sequence, but when I decided that I would eventually like to read them all, I thought it would be better to read them in order. Imagine my irritation to find that this book is billed (see above!) as Book 6. Believe me - it is Book 7! And it has rather pulled the carpet out under the real Book 6 (Gareth) as these are closely connected stories and I now know too much about what happened to Gareth earlier on. PLEASE will someone sort this out so no-one else gets the stories muddled!Because I hadn't read the very connected real Book 6, it took me a while to 'read into' the personal relationships, although, as with all Ms Burrowes' books, I eventually got immersed with the characters and the events surrounding them.Andrew was severly traumatised by a sea tragedy as a 15-year-old and this affected his relationship with women, and, to a certain extent, his brother Gareth. The story-line is somewhat complicated to explain concisely, but basically it involved his relationship with Astrid, his brother's wife's sister - if you follow me! She has recently been widowed and is expecting a child who - if male - could be the heir to his father's vicountcy. There seem to be attempts on Astrid's life and members of her late husband's family are suspected of trying to remove the possible heir. To get her away from them (who would have control over her if she remained unmarried), her brother and Andrew's brother were keen for Andrew to marry her, and bring her back within their control.As usual, Ms Burrowes portrays warm characters - I always take to her heroes - and I really cared about what happened between Andrew and Astrid. I would certainly recommend this to those who don't know Ms Burrowes work. Those who do will need no encouragement to read this tale!

I saw that Grace Burrowes was a recognised author and thought her books would be better than they are. She admits to research, but what does she research. Certainly not language or food or behaviour of the times. We have the usual over 6' hero with an eyebrow or stare with dual personalities. One persona treats women in general as whores, mistresses, or objects of no value and the other persona decides that there is one woman who will be his project for the rest of his life to adore, protect, please and satisfy and breed with. She, who has a rather poor opinion of herself will submit initially to the pleasing and over a period of time also to the protection and breeding and they will live happily ever after. They will all scoot and slather and throw logs on the fire, carry tea trays, inhabit the kitchen (I never quite understood why the kitchens were so devoid of staff), eat American muffins (apple and cinamon in one book), and none of them, not one of them in all the books will behave as the aristocracy of the 18th and 19th Century. As a wee aside what's with the 'will he, nil he', could it possibly be willy nilly? What a disappointment. I must go and read some Georgette Heyer to remind me of the joy there is in good, accurate historical romance. Can I recommend that Grace reads some Georgette as research.

This is the 5th in the Lonely Lords series and as such it follows the path to love and redemption as with the previous Lonely Lords and the ladies who redeem them. Grace Burrows has a truly magical talent. Notwithstanding blistered fingers, if you like your novels hot and spicy then the Lonely Lords series will be for you, the story draws you into the lives of the characters and as they are linked in some way, usually by family, you don't entirely lose touch with the previous characters. Patience is a virtue it is said, unfortunately not one of mine where my reading is concerned and am looking forward to meeting more Lonely Lords,

I have been waiting for this book since ouur Hero Andrew first popped up in Grace's first book "The Heir" and I was not disappointed . As in all her books Grace makes us fall in love with her hero and heroine and I did this with Andrew and Astrid.Astrid had fallen in love with Andrew at the age of seventeen but he had gone abroad and she had married someone else who had died leaving her pregrant . Andrew returns to this situation, carrying secrets with him which make him unhappy to marry or have children . The book is about their developing relationship and is wonderfully written. I also loved the relationship between Andrew's brother Gareth and Andrew and how they were there for each other when needed.This has to be my favourite book so far

I love this Lonely Lords series and one just leads to another... I loved Gareth in the last book and I love Andrew in this one. It was so good to meet Gareth and Felicity again and we get an intriguing introduction to Douglas, but the story of Astrid and Andrew is delightful. What a relief when they finally arrive at their HEA!