The Soldier’s Rebel Lover is second in Marguerite Kaye’s post-Peninsular War “Comrades In Arms” series and, like the first, The Soldier’s Dark Secret, is as much about honour, loyalty, patriotism, and disillusionment as romantic love. Kaye’s historical veracity (Miss Bates holds it above the pragmatic notion of accuracy, library research and cue cards provide that) thematic richness, and exceptional prose make for histrom reading as fine as any a rom reader is likely to encounter. Kaye makes the characters’ feelings of disillusionment and questioning that come with the historical owl’s dusky flight come alive. Miss Bates elevates Kaye to her histrom favourites: Cecilia Grant, Rose Lerner, and Meredith Duran. She loved the first in Kaye’s series, but thinks the second even finer. At Wellington’s behest, Jack Trestain, Dark Secret‘s hero, appeals to his friend Major Finlay Urquhart to re-enter Spain, in disguise, and rescue/extract El Fantasma, the still-active Spanish partisan leader who helped defeat Napoleon’s army. Why? Because should El Fantasma be captured by the present repressive Spanish régime, he may reveal actions damaging to Wellington and England. Finlay, like Jack, is restless and purposeless now war is over. Finlay’s loyalty to his friend, and Jack’s to his country, as well as Finlay’s “unsettledness”, convince him to take the mission. Soon thereafter, Finlay enters Spain disguised as a wine merchant.   (more…)