Reviews for Dawn Encounter (Master at Arms Series #2)

The average rating for Dawn Encounter (Master at Arms Series #2) based on 2 reviews is 2.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2016-07-02 00:00:00 Margie Avellino Well, this is another Jo Beverley first: my first DNF. This is a real shame as I found myself stranded on a public library long weekend and no way to actually move on to the next. So why the DNF? To start, I felt Beverley betrayed Hawk. For two stories now, we've heard (and seen) how smart and competent he is, how he doesn't forget a detail, and how he reads people and situations to come to the correct conclusion. So I was interested as soon as I realized that his trajectory would put him in opposition to the Rogues, at least initially. What a great set of conflicts that might open up! Only, he completely forgets, for half the story, that Lucien is a Rogue. And with the lame excuse that he wasn't used to thinking of him as "Arden" (his title). This is freaking Hawk the investigator and a group closely associated with one of his two best friends! Plus, bonus, he doesn't make the blindingly obvious connection that maybe something so brilliantly hidden that he can't make progress on it in a couple weeks of determined trying just might have been hidden by the Rogues. This is stupid beyond all reason. That he didn't pull in at least Con and preferably Nicholas and/or Lucien and ask for a confidential update is stupid, even if he didn't go the extra step of asking help in solving his personal quandary. But even that was only the start of the stupid. He compounds this by his treatment of Clarissa. You don't manipulate the woman you love and just hope she forgives you later. You don't seek her social ruin and hope it turns out in the end. You don't scheme for her money, money you desperately need, and then ask for a do-over once you have it. His actions indicate a distinct lack of the trust central to love, but to then answer her question "Do you love me?" with "I adore you" is, to me, an evasion of the highest order. At that point, I finally lost all confidence in his competence and hereby name him more appropriately: Chicken. So Chicken was bad enough to deal with, but this book also marks the return of Lissette, the manipulative wench from the first book. And we have Beverley giving her all sorts of mystical powers of manipulation and disguise and access and intelligence'just like the first book where I hated her so much. I mean, she magically knows about the title disposition. And the Georges. And Clarissa's friends and neighbors. And she moves about freely with disguises and lies and manipulation that would take three of her to pull off. But that's okay because Beverley obviously loves the conniving seductress for some reason so she gets away with it. With the combination of Chicken being such an idiot and Lissette showing up to spoke everyone's wheels for no reason, I simply lost all desire to continue. This is at about the halfway point. I'm sorry, but I'm tired of people I'm supposed to take seriously as smart being run around in circles by an idiot with the author in her back pocket. It's a betrayal of the characterization from the previous stories coupled with the bad taste left from the stupid of that first book and I just don't want to know more. I don't even want to know if Lissette gets away with it again and disappears. I will say that if she shows up in any more stories, this may not be my only Beverley DNF... A note about Steamy: This may be a base canard and slander. I didn't get to any explicit scenes. But the kissing was on course for them and I can't imagine Beverley wasting all that chemistry between the main characters so Imma assume there's some and tag appropriately.

Review # 2 was written on 2019-11-28 00:00:00 Daniel Buckley I liked the H, and the h was OK. He's trying to entrap her, as he believes she's involved in evil OM's death. She's uncomfortable with the situation, the inheritance and once she meets the H, she falls for him. This is more than a love story, so many twists and turns. She changed a lot and grew up, and became a stronger person. Great to see the other rogues and their families in this story.