Everyday Rowena

This is the last of the Bastion Club books. It's Dalziel's book and if you've been reading this series from the beginning then you have been wondering just who this Dalziel character is. He was the leader of the Bastion Club and finally, his story is told.The mystery behind Dalziel is uncovered in the pages of Mastered by Love. This book was a story about a man who had to come to grips with the fact that he will never get a chance to square things away with his late father. He's thrown into the life that he was booted out of and he's trying to stay afloat, all the while trying to stay away from the one woman he cannot have. The only woman he desperately wants.While reading this book, I have come to realize that Stephanie Laurens writes those old school historical novels that are very wordy, completely angst ridden and yet, still very engaging. Reading this book, took me back to when I was reading Christian's story The Edge of Desire. When I was reading that story, there were times when I thought I was never going to finish the book because there were just too many words but I did finish the book and I did enjoy it and that was the same way with this one.The book itself was really good. The story was a solid storyline, one that got me into the story but there were times aplenty in this book where I wished that SL would have just chopped this story in half and called it a day. I think had she did that, my enjoyment would have soared through the roof because while I enjoyed the angst and the chemistry between the two main leads in this story, the drama got to be too much.The third time that I picked up this book, I recall telling my niece Chelsea that I wished this book had less words in it. I didn't need so much detail about the setting and I didn't need to know all of the farmer's names, all of the families names on the Mom and the Dad's side, their baby mama drama and their birth dates and all of that. All of the words didn't make me put the book down. I was too invested in the story to quit on it but I wanted to and even though I loved both Royce and Minerva, I wanted their story to end and when it finally did, I rejoiced because I stuck with it.So here are my thoughts, if you don't mind long winded descriptions on everything from the setting to the sex, then this is the book for you. I think all Bastion Club fans will enjoy this book because finally, finally we get to find out who Dalziel really is and I really liked who he was. I liked how the book ended. It was great to see the other people from the other series as well (Cynsters, although it was pretty crazy to see Devil BEFORE he was married). They were a delightful addition to this story and the way that Royce handled everything and everyone made me lust after him like a tramp. He was a great hero, Minerva was his perfect match and had this book been chopped in half, it probably would have gotten a 4.5 but because of the wordy-ness and the amount of time it took me to read this book, it gets just a 4.