Simon Alexander tries to pursue a lady in this historical paranormal romance. But how to manage that, when the lady in question can travel through time? THE HELLION IS TAMED returns to the 1800s when we meet Simon, adopted by a strange men’s club called the League of Lords. Simon was a street urchin but is now being passed off as related to a titled lord on the wrong side of the blanket.

Emmaline Breslin incurred the wrath of the League of Lords in a previous book, when she snatched up a jewel and stepped through time with it. The men have been looking for her ever since, while running gaming hells and helping guttersnipes find employment. In an episode reminiscent of The Time Traveler’s Wife, Emma has been dipping in and out of people’s pasts in St. Giles, London, helping women at the moment they encounter misfortune. But a poor girl needs to eat and sleep, and Simon’s time has piped water, gas lamps, and easy heat--so much more advantageous than her own time eighty years previously. The gem gives her the power to travel almost at will.

Simon has a gift of his own, but a macabre one; he sees ghosts and can converse with them. London is full of the dead. He also enjoys the company of women of easy virtue, be they streetwalkers or the wealthy set. And somehow his habits have made Emma covetous, even though she barely knows him. She is not prepared for him to track her down, although at first, all he has in mind is her jewel.

I found the story took a long time to get started, with Emma learning better-class manners and scoffing nastily at Simon, without his knowing why. They have many conversations but still fail to communicate. Only much later do we learn of a threat to a time traveler. Many characters from the series appear, so followers of the League of Lords series will be pleased to see how everyone is getting along at this later date. More than once, the tale came across to me as having no urgent plot, just a day-by-day account of learning to dance the waltz. However, Tracy Sumner has clearly done a great deal of research and constantly sprinkles details of the lifestyle and environs of her characters. The oddities (like superhero talents) of the League of Lords can’t be publicly exhibited and may be passed to a new generation. That’s if the time travelers live long enough... THE HELLION IS TAMED is a fun adult historical romance with a difference.

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