The lovely Ellie Thomas is back on the blog! She’s here to talk about An Unlikely Alliance, the box set, so keep on reading!
Thank you so much, Ofelia, for having me back on the blog again! I’m Ellie, and I write Historical MM Romance. I’m delighted to announce that the box set for my Regency London-set An Unlikely Alliance MMM trilogy is now on release!
This box set consists of An Unlikely Alliance, An Increasing Entanglement and An Uncommon Alignment, where Clem, Abe and Humphrey, three very different men in terms of character and status find mutual attraction and forge a lasting relationship to reach their HEA.
When we first meet Abe Pengelly in An Unlikely Alliance, we see him through the eyes of his occasional lover Clem. Tough-guy Abe holds court at the Old Red Lion Inn that straddles the Fleet Ditch with a long history of criminal confederacy.
Bur despite his swashbuckling appearance, complete with a red velvet coat harking back to the glory days of the tavern, Abe is already planning to transform himself into a respectable businessman.
Abe might have grown up on the streets as a brawler and semi-criminal, but his devotion to his mother, Lucy, means that he has no desire to be transported or to face the gallows. By his mid-twenties, Abe has moved away from fencing stolen goods to trading in information, which is how he meets Clem. Abe is not only attracted to Clem but over time, he’s developed an affection for him. However, his growing feelings for Clem don’t seem to further their relationship.
That changes when Humphrey enters the equation and the three men embark on a relationship. Abe finally feels he’s ready to settle down, to his mother’s delight. In An Increasing Entanglement, Abe’s plans to gradually ease into respectability are fast forwarded when Travers, a contact at the military headquarters of Horse Guards, offers him a job. Similarly, his personal life is upended by Clem’s abduction by his enemy and former employer Richard Farquarson. Since he confronted Farquarson on Clem’s behalf in the first story, Abe feels culpable for this development.
Apart from his mother, Abe is accustomed to being a lone wolf, and by the third story, An Uncommon Alignment, we watch him struggle with his change of circumstances. Instead of the freedom of the Old Red Lion, he is now an office worker with colleagues and has to tolerate their petty bullying due to a difference in social class.
He’s also no longer a single man. Abe is capable of deep-rooted loyalty but he’s used to keeping his own counsel and carefully guarding secrets. Abe has to learn not to make unilateral decisions where Clem and Humphrey’s happiness is concerned, and to function as part of a team, both professionally and personally. By the end of the third novella, Abe is no longer living life on the edge but has eased into a happy domestic life and a burgeoning career, with the support of the men he loves.
Blurb:
All three novellas in the MMM Regency An Unlikely Alliance trilogy by Ellie Thomas are compiled for this box set.
In these stories, bratty private secretary Clem, semi-criminal hard man Abe, and shy gentleman Humphrey discover that mutual passion leads to romance and even lasting love when they band together to defeat a mutual enemy.
Contains the stories:
An Unlikely Alliance: In Regency London, private secretary Clem encounters shy gentleman Humphrey with satisfying results. From then on, it seems natural to include Abe, Clem’s regular lover, in their frolics. Apart from willing bedfellows, Clem is used to being alone and unsupported. But will the alliance between the three men prove more substantial than mere passing pleasure?
An Increasing Entanglement: Clem, Abe and Humphrey are struggling to maintain their romantic connection in the hustle and bustle of Regency London. When one of their trio is threatened, will the others dash to his rescue? And might this be the making of their romance?
An Uncommon Alignment: In Regency London, Clem, Abe and Humphrey are spending the summer together, in the hope of consolidating their romance. But amongst the demands of everyday life, an old enemy reappears to threaten their harmony. Can the trio defeat Richard Farquarson for once and all? And might they find a way to remain together forever?
Excerpt:
Excerpt from An Unlikely Alliance:
Humphrey had tried and failed to forget the episode in the coffee house the week before. It wasn’t as though he had the excuse of no other distractions. He barely had a free minute given the number of house guests arriving for the start of the Season. There seemed to be a constant round of relatives expecting him to conduct them in the social round.
At Drury Lane Theatre, Humphrey was entirely distracted during a performance of Hamlet, simply because one of the supporting actors bore a faint resemblance to the man from the coffee house. Only then did he admit he was a lost cause. In conversation with his cousins afterwards, he tried to hide that he couldn’t remember a single scene from the play, even though he’d studied it at school.
So after dinner one evening, when he wasn’t required for an hour or two, he audaciously decided to beard his seducer in his den, or rather the Fleet Street tavern he frequented.
Humphrey was so flustered by his uncharacteristic decisiveness that he changed his waistcoat three times. Although the blond had seemed more interested in what lay beneath Humphrey’s clothing.
He eyed his modest supply of coats with trepidation. Is the green too sober, the blue too frivolous and the buff-coloured one too plain?
In the end, he solved the problem by closing his eyes and picking a garment at random. He didn’t dare glance at the mirror in case that prompted more equivocation.
When downstairs, Humphrey hesitated by the drawing room door, lured by comfortable congeniality versus the pursuit of illicit pleasure. One minute he was about to enter the room and in the next, he was haring out of the front door and down the steps to the street.
He calmed his pace when he reached Holborn, slowed by a steady trickle of early evening foot traffic that thickened as he made his way towards Fleet Street.
I’m just going for a quiet drink, he thought. He might not even be there.
Humphrey halted at the entrance to the tavern, his resolve failing him. His vacillation was overcome by pure coincidence. A group of men required access and their impetus carried him over the threshold. Humphrey removed his crown beaver hat and looked around the unevenly shaped room.
With a combination of disappointment and relief, he concluded that his quarry wasn’t present. Then he spotted him in a corner nook. A second glance proved that he was not alone.
Humphrey shifted from foot to foot. In any given social situation he was a reliable sort of fellow, or so Aunt Cece reassured him. But etiquette couldn’t guide him in this particular situation.
It didn’t help that the man seated beside his acquaintance was equally attractive; well-built and with deep olive toned skin. He made a pleasing contrast to the other’s fair slenderness. His massive build reminded Humphrey enticingly of a bare knuckle boxer in an exhibition bout at the Lyceum.
Humphrey was dawdling indecisively when the blond looked up. Humphrey was neatly hooked by that sultry grey gaze. The man nudged his friend. He whispered a few words in his ear, from which hung a gold hoop. The other man grinned and looked Humphrey up and down in a far too knowledgeable way.
Oh good heavens, has he told him? Humphrey felt hot and cold and flustered all at once. He didn’t know whether to be flattered, alarmed, or horrified. He stood stock still, to the annoyance of another patron, halted in the course of reaching the bar.
“Scuse me, squire.”
“Beg your pardon,” Humphrey said immediately. Unfortunately, his reflex response brought him in front of the table occupied by his coffee house companion.
“Care to join us?” The dark aspected man asked.
The invitation seemed to be loaded with meaning.
Book links:
JMS Books :: Amazon :: UBL :: Add to Goodreads :: Add to Bookbub
Bio:
Ellie Thomas lives by the sea. She comes from a teaching background and goes for long seaside walks where she daydreams about history. She is a voracious reader especially about anything historical. She mainly writes historical gay romance.
Ellie also writes historical erotic romance as L. E. Thomas.
Website: https://elliethomasromance.wordpress.com/
Facebook reader group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/8308047409266947
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/elliethomas.bsky.social
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/19835510.Ellie_Thomas
Ofelia Grand 
Thanks so much for having me as your guest again, lovely Ofelia! ❤️
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Always a pleasure!
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