Rabid Reader's Reviews

Publication Date: December 3, 2014

In Triumph and Treasure by Collette Cameron, Angelina Ellsworth discovers that the man she married hours before is married to someone else in France. To escape a scandal, she travels to England playing the part of a newly widowed young woman. She soon finds that she’s pregnant and scandal seems inevitable. Flynn, the Earl of Luxmoore, finds himself in untenable circumstances when his father commits suicide after losing the family fortune to Lord Waterford, fortunately for Flynn there’s a potential out. Lord Waterford is willing to restore all to Flynn and his family if only the young Lord will marry his niece. With an invalid sister, sick mother and aging grandmother to care for, does Flynn really have a choice?

Triumph and Treasure by Collette Camerson is the first novel in the Highland Heather Romancing a Scot series.

The author, Collette Cameron, gave me a copy of this novel in exchange for my review.

Regency romance is one of this reader’s happy genres. Upon receiving Triumph and Treasure, I was truly excited. I moved it very far up in the queue of novels in my to-be-read pile planning a quiet evening with a warm blanket, hot tea and a travel back in time. I have very mixed feelings about this novel.

Regency authors frequently feature a male lead whose purpose in the plot is to look good, sport a porn star penis (that he has flailed around a bit freely before meeting his young miss after which it will work only in her presence) and save the plucky young heroine at the appointed time immediately preceding happily-ever-after. The young female lead is usually quite fleshed out to the extent that we know what she likes for lunch, the freckle on her behind and every insecure thought she ever had before reluctantly surfing a wave of passion that will lead to procreating like bunnies into the happily-ever-after. Call me cheesy, but sometimes I like that story.

Cameron has flipped the script on the formula. InTriumph and Treasure it’s Angelina we never really seem to get to know. She’s pretty and something of a Penelope Pitstop in the Regency world. Fortunately for Angelina, she has the wonderfully drawn Flynn. Flynn is an unusual character for the genre. He’s a deeply responsible and caring man who cross-breeds roses but is no one’s fool. His compassion is not drawn unrealistically. When Angelina’s uncle first suggests the compromise for which he’s willing to discharge the debt, Flynn is deeply suspicious. Despite himself, he likes the spirit of the woman that escaped a bull by climbing a tree, but mostly; he is a character who can’t resist a damsel in distress. It doesn’t hurt that Flynn also needs her to maintain his own household. He reads as a character with which the author has a deep connection — someone she considered quite carefully before putting him on the page. To be frank, if the choice is to only know one of the characters, I would make the same choice that Cameron did every time.

The first scenes involved Angelina’s new “husband” and the style of writing had the feeling of being rushed. At first I thought the distracted feel had to do with the introduction of the baddie being something the author wanted out of the way to get to the meat of the story. Upon reading Flynn’s first scene, the eyes were open. He’s waiting for a woman at a Ton dance with whom he’s besotted. Flynn anticipates marrying her and his emotions leap from the page. The scene sparkles. Flynn is Cameron’s golden character and she writes him beautifully. Angelina has some deeply emotional moments that play well off of Flynn so in the final reckoning, her lack of depth isn’t a complete loss forTriumph and Treasure.

Cameron conveys the tone of the Regency era well. Angelina feels that she has a plan but it’s not an easy time for women and she knows that. To add further fuel to the fire, her faux husband considers her to be his property and is looking for her. There is an intrinsic value to the protection of a man about which Cameron is very direct. The world is a dangerous place. Women and children are the property of their husbands and the men can do with them what they like to an extent not reaching death. Men of power can do as they wish without consequences. Cameron highlights for the reader how far we’ve come as women in society.

I received an Advance Reader’s Copy of Triumph and Treasure. In the copy I read there were some minor errors likely corrected before the final copy was published.

Triumph and Treasure was a read that I quite enjoyed. Cameron is a copious author of Regency fiction and not having read any of her other novels I can’t speak to if this novel is representative of her work, but can tell you, that I will seek out further novels at some point down the road.

You can read an excerpt and buy Triumph and Treasure by Collette Cameron on

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