The Wicked Deeds of Daniel MacKenzie Puts Jennifer Ashley at the Top of Historical Romance

The Wicked Deeds of Daniel Mackenzie (Highland Pleasures #6 – Daniel and Violet) by Jennifer Ashley (Berkley, October 1, 2013)

Oh, Daniel. Daniel, Daniel, Daniel.

I’ve had a pretty big soft spot in my heart for Daniel Mackenzie since he was the determined teenager bent of making sure his dissipated father, Lord Cameron Mackenzie, recognized that love had finally slapped him the face in the form of the lovely Ainsley Douglas in The Many Sins of Lord Cameron.

How could you not love him? Because Daniel, like his dad, was also damaged by his insane mother prior to her suicide, he has always possessed an aura of the Mackenzie suffering. Yet the fact that he was able to see his father and each of his more damaged uncles find love and happiness meant that Daniel had the potential to be a little braver and more astute when it came time for him to find the woman who would be meant for him.

In the latest Highland Pleasures full-length novel, The Wicked Deeds of Daniel Mackenzie, Daniel, now in his mid-twenties, embodies the height of the Victorian age of progress in 1890, utilizing his brilliant mind and his engineering degree developing steerable hot air balloons and tinkering with horseless carriages. When an aristocratic spendthrift insists on repaying a gambling debt to the lucky Daniel by taking him to a London house, Daniel thinks he’s going to a courtesan’s home and wants to make sure the lady in question is going to be all right with this drunk loser. What he finds is Mademoiselle Violette Bastien, a spiritual medium who is undoubtedly and positively a fraud.

The Many Sins of Lord Cameron (Highland Pleasures #3 – Cam and Ainsley) by Jennifer Ashley (Berkley, 2011)

But she’s a stunning, vibrant incredibly smart fraud and after Daniel manages to run off the pack of overindulged nobility who came with him he admiringly examines all the bells and whistles she’s managed to rig up utilizing the home’s internal systems. Attracted by her brain as much as her spirit and delectable body, Daniel can’t help but take a taste and finds himself knocked unconscious for his pains, right after glimpsing a very real look of fear in the eyes of the lovely Violet. When he wakes, she and her mother are long gone, and his gut is telling him not to let go of this particular mystery.

So begins the chase. Jennifer Ashley once again wins my undying admiration as a writer because she pulls off the total believability (in historical romance, no less) of a man fourth in line to a dukedom potentially having a happily ever after with a lower middle class con artist from Southwark. She manages this through a combination of outstanding writing (these two characters are so obviously compatible it’s impossible to imagine them with anyone else) and by spending the other eight books in the series (don’t forget the two novellas!) building the impossible Mackenzie family.

The Mackenzies we all know and love really don’t give a crap about Victorian society’s conventions, to the point where some of them (hell, all of them) actively thumb their nose at what’s expected. After living without love for so long, every Mackenzie is ready to help Daniel get his girl even if she’s not as suitable as the previous women who have married into the family.

Violet is a beautifully rendered character who tugs at the heartstrings. After hearing what her life has been like – she has literally never had anyone look after her and has suffered greatly as a result – you love and admire her as much as Daniel does. As she slowly trusts him enough to reveal her past piece by piece, Daniel’s gentling of her skittishness about anything physical is so sensual and patient that its impossible not to have a couple of heart-melting moments. Naturally we get to see all our favorite Mackenzies, with those babies more grown up and actually talking with their personalities blazing bright. Heaven!

There is a teaser chapter at the end for the next full-length novel in the series, Rules for a Proper Governess, which will be the story of Ainsley’s brother Sinclair, the brilliant Scottish barrister who flattens opponents in the courtroom while not being able to manage his two hellion children after the death of their mother seven years ago. It looks like another unlikely pairing will be in Ashley’s capable hands as the female in question seems even more shady than Violet, but I’ve no doubt she is exactly what Sinclair needs. Since his story won’t come out until early October 2014, we are waiting for the next novella – the story of the other MacBride brother Stephen, who I don’t know too much about – in September 2014. I’m hoping that big wait means I have oodles more Shifters Unbound books headed my way since another of Ashley’s brilliant features is her ability to write astoundingly well in multiple genres.

With yet another amazing book in the Highland Pleasures series which I adore (and right on the heels of the novella The Untamed Mackenzie which was outstanding), Jennifer Ashley has convinced me of not only the suitability of an unlikely pairing in historical romance (no easy feat given my intense preference for historical accuracy) but also that she is a historical romance author bar none. Do yourself a favor and pick up The Wicked Deeds of Daniel Mackenzie as soon as you can. He might be wicked, but it’s been worth the wait to see this Mackenzie all grown up.