Iain can’t seem to let go of his self doubts or his uneasiness at the fact he prefers men. Their chemistry was muted because Iain is forever pulling James into his orbit then tossing him away because of his fears. The tension and action left me feeling like we were reliving the same scene over and over. Nothing to really draw our heroes away from their own issues essentially creating a vacuum that mainly consists of Iain chasing after James demanding his forgiveness and James struggling not to fall back into his old patterns of codependency. There were no subplots to bracket the romance. It’s well written with interesting characters and an engaging descriptive base, I found this one didn’t draw me inasmuch. He is prone to honesty and his friendship with Iain was an important part of his life. A gentle man who wears his emotions on his sleeve. He can’t allow his attraction to men to develop into an tendre for someone something that could have easily happened with James. Appearance is everything to Iain and his father’s approval is the standard on which he lives his life. Much of Iain’s issues stem from his father’s treatment of him. The story reveals in both the past and the present, allowing us to see the awkwardness in these two former friends and the reasons behind it. Set in the regency period, family and society values play a large role in the reasons these friends go their separate ways in the first place. As with the Enlightened series, Chambers’s writes an angst-ridden M/M romance facilitated by guilt and fear. Fans will remember seeing Captain Iain Sinclair while Mundo and David were in the London attending to the King. Unnatural is a spin-off set in Chambers’s passionate and bittersweet Enlightened series. Iain is forced to take a deep look at why he rejected James in the first place and decide if his reasons for mending their friendship are as purely motivated as he seems to think. Iain only has one chance to convince James to forgive him but James’s indifference is something he has never encountered before.

After Iain humiliated him the last time, James declared himself done and has gone on with his life, determined to forget Iain and his love for him. He has done nothing but put himself out there only to be rejected by Iain at each turn. James has loved Iain since they were boys. When James reveals his heart to him, Iain cruelly pushes him away and has avoided him ever since. James was a childhood friend of his who accepted him for exactly as he was. Before he leaves though, he wants to make amends and rekindle his friendship with James Hart. It was a lifeline.Ĭaptain Iain Sinclair is leaving the King’s service to embark on another adventure, this time in India as an undercover agent. Favorite Quote: The thread between them-the love between them-wasn’t a chain, or a tether.

Enlightened by Joanna Chambers