In Noble Pursuit by J.C. Natál

[reviews_and_ramblings]

I remember I like In Service by J.C. Natál but after reading In Noble Pursuit I feel like that book is even better than I remembered. In Noble Pursuit is not a sequel, it’s more a completion of that book and I strongly suggest you to read the two books together one soon after the other.

The story follow aristocrat Elias and his newly married husband, former slave, Jared from their honeymoon into the first year of their marriage. It’s not an easy year, above all since the threats from their enemy, Lord Stuart, are still there and they are getting dangerous. What I probably liked of this book is that, while in the first novel Lord Stuart got some of those threats striking, and there was a lot of pain both for Elias than Jared, and also separation that brought them even more pain, in In Noble Pursuit they are fighting always together and never once they are separated, always as proving that now that they are married they are as one only thing.

Both Elias and Jared change a lot from the boy they were in the first novel. Being involved in big things, it’s easy to forget they are only respectively, 25 and 21 years old, but readers realize that in this second book: there is an obvious evolution in Jared, learning to be an “adult” husband and not a “boy” slave. But who probably changed more is Elias; not in the fact that he fell in love with his slave, that was clear in book 1 and in the sacrifice he made then; Elias in this second book is learning that Jared is actually his peer, that he is a man and not a boy Elias has to protect. Jared is someone Elias could rely to in a same opportunity relationship.

I had the feeling that In Noble Pursuit was more romantic than In Service. Maybe even sweeter, like if the author was regretting a little all the ordeal of the previous novel and wanted to “gift” the heroes with some downtime, their honeymoon indeed.

http://www.darkroastpress.com/pursuit.php

Series:
1) In Service: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/1343505.html
2) In Noble Pursuit

Reading List: http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bottom.php?tag=reading list&view=elisa.rolle