Sometimes the most precious things cannot be bought...It's 1759 and Jamie Kinross has travelled far to escape his troubled past - from the pine forests of Sweden to the bustling streets of India. In India he starts a new life as a gem trader, but when his mentor's family are kidnapped as part of a criminal plot, he vows to save them and embarks on a dangerous mission to the city of Surat, carrying the stolen talisman of an Indian Rajah There he encounters Zarmina Miller. She is rich and beautiful, but her infamous haughtiness has earned her a nickname: The Ice Widow. Jamie is instantly tempted by the challenge she presents. But when it becomes clear that Zarmina's step-son is involved in the plot, He begins to see another side to her - a dark past to rival his own and a heart just waiting to be thawed. But is it too late? The final in the Kinross series - Trade Winds, Highland Storms and Monsoon Mists. PAPERBACK INCLUDES A FREE DIGITAL COPY - DETAILS WITHIN THE PAPERBACK.
Have you ever had friends that fancy each other rotten but won’t do anything about getting together? Jamie and Zarmina are a bit like that, but without the teenage ‘I’m too shy’ or the insecure person’s ‘What if he doesn’t fancy me?’ excuses. They are both confident, and well-off (which matters in their milieu), and well aware that the other at least finds them intriguing. But, thanks to their past histories, Jamie doesn’t trust women and Zarmina is afraid of marriage. In spite of their instant mutual attraction, and their being thrown together – literally in some cases – as a consequence of step-son William’s attempt to outwit the powerful local bully, it takes a long time for them to accept they belong with each other. I’ve read a lot of books where the soul-searching this involves is repetitive and dull, where the one step back after two steps forward is the result of capriciousness or, at best, guilt, but this is not one of them. In part this is because we learn each detail of their history as and when it affects their actions and decisions – the backstories, or at least the emotional aspects of them – are not shoe-horned in just anywhere but are an integral part of the way we get to know the two main characters and the people important to them. It’s also because what happens to them doesn’t just mean they have to spend time together, or get a chance to show themselves at their best, but also because they are forced to be vulnerable and to depend on each other – a far more psychologically satisfying reason for such a change of heart than recognising that he’s pretty tough and she’s a shrewd businesswoman. Net result was that over 80% of the way through the book, they were still shilly-shallying around but I didn’t want to bang their heads together.
But what about the action? As well as finding each other, the lovers reveal the mastermind behind the theft of the talisman, vanquish his minions and become reconciled with their families. They are helped by Jamie’s mentor, Akash, and his family; the wronged Rajah; and, most entertainingly, by Roshani and Kutaro – but if you want to find out who they are you’ll have to read the book. Oh, and there are pirates and desert islands too!
It’s set in 18th century India – mostly Surat – and the descriptions of the city and the relationships between the local people and European merchants didn’t jar with all the other stuff (fiction and non-fiction) I’ve read about this place and time. Much of the dialogue is noticeably modern – by which I mean that it’s gone beyond stripping out the circumlocutions and archaic vocabulary to include newer idioms and ways of thinking too: think Suzannah Dunn rather than Philippa Gregory or Georgette Heyer. I can live with anachronistic words, even concepts (although not things) but I know it annoys some. I was, however, irritated by the expository descriptions of words such as mosque, kedgeree and howdah: things that, even if they are not familiar to us, are to the characters. Explaining what they are, rather than letting the reader work out (if they need to), for example, that kedgeree is some sort of food, not only slows things down but feels rather patronising. But this, and the odd info-dump (“my brother Sanjiv who, as you know, lives only a couple of streets away”) were my only gripes.
I had wondered how I would cope with it being Book 3 in a series when I’ve not read either Book 1 or Book 2, but I'd no need to worry. Monsoon Mists definitely works as a stand-alone novel because it focusses on the adventures of one member of the family and puts him in a place apart for most of the story. Of course, I now want to read Highland Storms to get Jamie’s bother’s view of what happened in Sweden and I’ve no doubt that that will, in turn, take me back to Trade Winds. In other words, an enjoyable historical romance from a new-to-me author that I will read again.
