Until I read The Prisoner, I had read only one book by Karyn Monk –The Rebel and the Redcoat, which is a huge favorite. So I started this one with high expectations. But although I found the premise interesting, this book just didn’t work for me. Try as I might, I just couldn’t get into it.

Genevieve MacPhail is an outcast from society who chose her course long ago. When she was on the verge of marrying an earl, she had to choose between him and her half brother – a bastard born to a maid who was in prison. Genevieve chose to save her brother, and was summarily dumped by her fiancé. Since then she’s taken in several more children from the local prison. All of them were serving sentences for petty theft, and she bribed the prison governor to let them live with her. She educates them, clothes them, and gives them a better life.

One day when she’s in the prison rescuing another boy named Jack, she discovers a man being beaten by the warden. She stops the beating, but discovers that the prisoner is a condemned murderer sentenced to hang the next day. While she is talking to the prison governor, Jack steals the keys and lets the condemned man out. Later that night, he shows up on her doorstep, intending to talk to Jack. He is gravely injured and completely delirious, and Genevieve takes him in. When he finally comes to, he tells her that he is a marquess, and that he killed a man in self-defense. Genevieve is not really sure if she can believe him, but she lets him stay long enough to recover from his injuries.

The prisoner/marquess is Haydon Kent, and of course he really is innocent. Naturally he is handsome. Genevieve is beautiful and practically a saint to boot, so we can see where this is going. They will fall in love, Haydon will eventually find a way to prove his innocence, and he will marry Genevieve and rescue her and all her charming children from the jaws of poverty.

As a fan of Monk’s earlier book, I thought I was predisposed to like this one. I did like her basic writing style, and I found Haydon and Genevieve generally likable. Haydon has been living a rather rakish life and has spent much of the last year drunk, trying to escape from the pain and guilt he feels over the loss of his daughter. Genevieve makes him see that he is actually a noble, good person, and it’s nice to see him come to accept himself.

However, there were several problems that make this book really miss the mark for me. It started right at the beginning, with Haydon’s arrest and imprisonment. This is a nobleman, a marquess, who has killed a thug who attacked him. Haydon’s trial is quick and his sentence is even quicker. Now I know that justice and due process in the nineteenth century aren’t what they are today, but it seems to me that a rich nobleman who kills a ruffian would have had the courts on his side. It made absolutely no sense to me that his case would have been brought to trial in the first place. Yeah, Haydon was drunk at the time and didn’t immediately tell the authorities about the incident. He was also rich and powerful, and the guy who attacked him was some poor thug with no one to testify in his behalf. This made no sense to me.

The children also posed a problem. I have no categorical objection to children in romances, but this crew hijacked the story. There was little meaningful interaction between Genevieve and Haydon because the kids always seemed to be center stage. The children were not uninteresting, and at times they seemed realistic, but there were too many of them, and we saw them too often. The social commentary connected to the children was also pretty thick. The author makes sure we know what society thinks about these children, and what the real causes of their theft and poverty are.

The only time Genevieve and Haydon do really interact is when they are making love, and I had trouble buying this relationship as well. Genevieve is shown to be a moral, innocent woman, but she jumps into bed with Haydon very quickly. I could understand if they talked and got to know each other – and eventually they do this – but their relationship pretty much starts with a quick grope. Genevieve is feeling upset about something that happened to one of the children, and she comes to talk to Haydon. Before you know it, they are passing third base and heading for home, and Genevieve seems to think nothing of it.

I could see this book working better for someone who liked a lot of children and plenty of social commentary. The love scenes are also a possible draw; they are very steamy, and are generally well written. But overall I find this one too fundamentally flawed to recommend.