AT LOVE'S COMMAND - Samantha Kane 

Brothers In Arms series - Book 4

La Grande Mort

Ellora's Cave - www.ellorascave.com

ISBN: 978-1-4199-1404-1

December 2007

Erotic Romance Ménage a Trios

Rated: E-rotic

London, England and Torres Vedras, Portuga l-19th century

Ian Witherspoon has finally decided to wed. Engaged at eighteen-years-old to a girl of ten, their betrothal agreement stated that Ian and Sophie will be wed when Sophie became of age. Ian, although less than thrilled, agreed to the betrothal in order to stay in his father's good graces. Then the war happened--and Derek.

Derek is taciturn, sarcastic, difficult, possessive and madly in love with Ian.Why now, after twelve years, has Ian decided to marry this Sophie girl, and bring her into their lives and bed? Ian keeps insisting to him that this marriage is not just for him, but for Derek as well, and how is that possible when Derek does not want a wife? He and Ian have been together for five years, memories of the war still haunt him, but with Ian, Derek is content. Reluctantly, but not quietly, Derek will bear this marriage; but if that girl thinks that she will take Ian from him, she'd better think again.

Sophie Middleton knows only one thing: she will do anything to get away from her father and older brother. Emotionally, verbally and sexually abused, she sees marriage to Ian as an escape. In addition, she knows of Ian's arrangement with Derek, and she accepts it and is graceful, hoping that it will keep Ian from bedding her, at least too often. Sophie even feels sorry for Derek, she has heard the servants gossip and knows that he is jealous of her, she wishes she could talk to him to assure him that his worries are unwarranted.

From the beginning, strong characters and great writing have been the hallmark of the Brothers In Arms series. AT LOVE'S COMMAND is the fourth book in the series, and goes deeper into the history and the emotional lives of the men who fought in the Peninsular war and found solace in each other. Finally back home in England, they still deal with the aftereffects from the war. In erotic romances where menage a trios are the center, sometimes jealousy, confusion, and physical and emotional rejection give way all too easily to a fully formed, happily-ever-after relationship, this is not the case in AT LOVE'S COMMAND.

Derek hates Sophie. He cannot see why Ian is so insistent in bringing someone else into their bed and home, and readers will initially agree with Derek. Sophie blossoms from a timid mouse into the woman she is supposed to be after entering Ian's world. Ian is blond, beautiful, determined, and caught between two people: the person whom he loves most in the world and Sophie. Ms. Kane juggles the thoughts, feelings, and desires of three people in three very different relationships brilliantly. Secondary characters include Brothers In Arms from past and future books, and new Brothers In Arms are introduced.

I knew that if Ms. Kane's writing continued as has from the very beginning of the Brothers In Arms series that I would soon be giving one of her books a La Grande Mort. I was wrong in one regard, the writing has not simply stayed as good as it has been from the beginning, but has gotten progressively better. It is in AT LOVE'S COMMAND that Ms. Kane has been trying to show readers about love, the effects of war, and opening one's self up to the possibility of something unconventional might in the end be one's saving grace, that has prompted me to not only highly recommend AT LOVE'S COMMAND, which I do, but give it a La Grande Mort. It is well worth reading, even if one has not read previous books in the series. Hurry now to Ellora's Cave to pick up your copy, time is a wasting!

Nickole Yarbrough