The Bastard by Brenda Novak Book Review

Title:           THE BASTARD
Publisher: Brenda Novak
Pub Date:   November 01, 2011
Source:       Netgalley
Genre:        Adult Historical Romance 
Ratings:      5/5

Blurb:

To some men honor is just a word....

Jeannette Boucher, a young French beauty from a family left penniless by the revolution, must marry against her will to save them all from ruin. But almost immediately after the vows are spoken, she learns that her old English husband is impotent-and in his desire for an heir, he plans to compromise her in the worst way.

Determined to escape such a fate, she stows away on one of His Majesty's frigates. But a woman alone is in constant danger.

To Lieutenant Treynor, honor means everything....

Born a bastard to a wayward marquise, Lieutenant Crawford Treynor was given to a poor farmer to raise and was maltreated until he ran away to join the Royal Navy. Treynor is determined to prove he's as good as any other man and rise to captain his own frigate. But once he finds Jeannette aboard The Tempest he must decide whether to return her to the man he knows would abuse her-or risk everything, even his life, to keep her safe.

Photo and blurb courtesy of Netgalley

My Review:

This book was a wonderful and delightful read, a true love story between a strong heroine, complimented by a strong Hero.

Lieutenant Trenor Crawford is an officer at the British Royal Navy and hadn’t had an easy time getting where he is. He mistrusts women as a result of his bitterness towards his mother who lead him to believe he is a bastard, never revealing who his real father was. He meets Jeanette dressed as a boy, who is running away from her baron husband after finding out on her wedding night that the baron (who is impotent) has other distasteful ways of getting her with child. She wants to go to London in the hope that her uncle will help in having the marriage annulled.

The two characters and the situation they find themselves in create a healthy conflict, eventually find they are truly in love. Oh, what can I say? I LOVED reading this book, and I enjoyed that everything was nicely tied at the end, giving the Trenor and Jeannette their Happy Ever After.