Review - - The Most Dangerous Duke in London

The Most Dangerous Duke in London

By Madeline Hunter

Publisher: Zebra

Release Date: May 30, 2017
Reviewed by Janga

Three schoolboys are drawn together by their status as heirs to dukedoms. The bonds forged then endure. Later, the three pledge their loyalty to one another as the members of an exclusive group, the Decadent Duke’s Society. The loyalty that unites Adam Penrose, Duke of Stratton; Gabriel St. James, Duke of Langford; and Eric Marshall, Duke of Brentworth survives maturity and separation. The Most Dangerous Duke in London is Stratton’s story.

The Duke of Stratton, has recently returned to England to investigate the circumstances that led to his father’s suicide. He is skeptical but curious when the Countess of Marwood requests his presence at the country estate of her grandson, the new Earl of Marwood. Adam suspects that his reputation for duels and her concern for her grandson lie behind the countess’s maneuvers, but he is unprepared for her proposal that he marry her younger granddaughter to put an end to the decades of enmity between the Penrose and Cheswick families. Seventeen-year-old Emilia, despite her undeniable beauty and impressive dowry, is too young and too compliant to appeal to Adam, but he finds her elder half-sister intriguing.

Lady Clara Cheswick was her father’s favorite child. She enjoyed an unusually close relationship with him, and he encouraged her in an education and a freedom rarely allowed a female. At twenty-four, Lady Clara is still unmarried and content to remain so. Her father’s will provided for her generously enough to allow her to live independently of her brother and her paternal grandmother and to continue to reject marriage. Lady Clara is using part of her inheritance to implement more regular publication of Parnassus, a women’s journal that encompasses politics, literature, and fashion. Lady Clara serves as its publisher and benefactor. Loyal to her father, she is opposed to her grandmother’s plans and disinterested in Adam’s proposal to marry her rather than her sister, but she cannot control a reluctant attraction to him.

Adam persists in the face of Clara’s repeated rejections. His ducal friends, Langford and Brentworth question his motives, but even Adam himself is not sure how much is his real fascination with Clara and how much is the hope that she possesses information he needs about her father’s role in his father’s death. A friendship of sorts develops between Adam and Clara. She has the intelligence and spirit he needs in a woman, and she is seduced as much by his recognition of her as an equal as she is by his undeniable physical attributes. The friends become lovers, but their feelings are tested as the twisted story of choices that harmed his family and fostered the flourishing of hers unravels. Will love prove more powerful than the need for revenge?

Madeline Hunter introduces her Decadent Dukes trilogy with a complex story featuring compelling protagonists engaged in a relationship that captivates the reader from beginning to end. This is a novel in which the conflicts, internal and external, are organic rather than contrived. Clara’s reasons for avoiding marriage are valid in a culture that denies a married woman any rights to her own property and to a separate legal identity. Adam’s anger and anguish over his father’s death and his mother’s ostracism is legitimate. The false rumors that pushed Adam’s father to take his own life are real. Both Clara and Adam are pulled between desire and reason, and their caution in declaring their feelings is understandable.

Too often I have been disappointed by an active heroine’s independence melding into passivity by the story’s end. That is not the case here. Clara remains an active participant in the resolution. I found the ending of both the romance and the suspense thread totally satisfactory. Hunter gives her readers enough of a look at Langford and Brentworth to establish them as interesting characters who deserve their own stories without permitting them to weaken the focus on Adam and Clara. All of these qualities helped to make this a superb read.

If you like intelligent romance fiction with dimensional, mature characters, I highly recommend this novel. I eagerly await the next book in the trilogy, the story of Langford, a charming rogue who has already won my heart. This series promises to be as good as Hunter’s Wicked trilogy—and it provided some of my favorite romance novels of 2015-2016.

Review - - Dressed to Kiss

Dressed to Kiss

By Madeline Hunter, Caroline Linden,

Megan Frampton, Myretta Robens

Self-published

Release Date: September 12, 2016

  

Madame Follette’s is a dressmaking shop located on Vine Street in London. The shop has seen better days, but the current manager, Felicity Dawkins, daughter of the shop’s founder, is determined to see that status change. All of London’s elite are preparing for the coronation of King George IV, an occasion that offers an opportunity to prove that Madame Follette’s dresses are superior to those produced by the city’s best dressmakers. Felicity is ably assisted in her efforts by two designers/dressmakers, Selina Fontaine and Delyth Owen. Felicity’s brother, Henry, serves as bookkeeper for the shop. Each of the novellas in this anthology centers around one of these four characters.

“The Duke’s Dressmaker” by Madeline Hunter opens the collection. Selina Fontaine found a sanctuary as well as employment in the dressmakers owned by Sophie-Louise Follette Dawkins. Selina arrived in London, a gently bred girl who fled her village when a young aristocrat whose charm disguised his lack of integrity left her with broken promises and a stained reputation. Selina is wiser that she was when she left her village four years ago, and her instinct tells her to avoid her newest client, the young bride of Lord Giles Woodville, the man Selina had expected to marry. But loyalty persuades her that designing a wardrobe, including a coronation gown, for the lady is an opportunity for Madame Follette’s cannot afford to miss. However, Selina fears for the shop and for her livelihood when Randall, the Duke of Barrowmore, accompanies his sister-in-law to a fitting and recognizes Selina. The mistrust is mutual, but the attraction between Selina and the duke proves more powerful. As closer acquaintance corrects their false impressions of one another, their hearts rule their heads. The road to an HEA is a proverbially rough one, but the conclusion to the tale is satisfyingly romantic. The novella may suffer in comparison to Hunter’s more complex novels, but her deft hand with characterization remains sure.

Myretta Robens’s “The Colors of Love” focuses on the second dressmaker, Delyth Owen, who ran away from home to join the theater as a costume designer. Her shift to Madame Follette’s and a clientele different from a company of actors has not lessened Delyth’s love of color in unusual combinations. One of her creations draws the attention of Simon Merrithew, the pseudonymous author of a popular fashion column who thinks Delyth is maliciously making a mockery of her client. But Delyth’s joy in her work and her zest for life soon have Simon bewitched, bothered, and bewildered. The pairing of a rational, controlled hero and an unconventional, joyous heroine is an established convention in historical romance, one I particularly enjoy. Robens handles it with a skill that will delight readers who will find themselves rooting wholeheartedly for these appealing characters.  Extra kudos to the author for making the reader see the colors Delyth uses with such boldness. She has Simon capture the spectacular quality of Delyth’s prize creation, a four-color display: “Attention must be given to Lady M, whom one might be forgiven for supposing had somehow missed the entrance to Astley’s and ended up at Almack’s. Lady M not only glittered, she shone, she flashed, she radiated.”

“No Accounting for Love” by Megan Frampton features Henry Dawkins, a large, socially awkward young man, more at ease with the figures in his account books than with the figures of a dance. Henry is pursued by Lady Euphemia, a spoiled young beauty who is accustomed to getting what she wants. It seems that she wants Henry who has already rejected her once, but Henry, who is unmoved by the charms of the debutante, finds Miss Katherine Grant, the young lady’s companion, irresistible. Circumstances have forced Katherine to be practical. She may be the daughter of a viscount, but she is poor. She counts herself fortunate to have secured an acceptable position for a lady of her class that also provides for her needs and, given Lady Euphemia’s younger sisters, offers the promise of long employment. The same rules that limit her means of supporting herself also dictate that Henry is an unacceptable match for her, but the rules and Henry’s responsibilities which make marriage impractical prove inadequate barriers as these two unlikely people tumble into love. This was my favorite of the quartet. Frampton’s humor, sometimes sharp and sometimes subtle, kept me smiling throughout the reading, and I adored Katherine and Henry, separately and together. The fact that Lady Euphemia is more than an overindulged chit is a wonderful touch. My only complaint—and it is actually a testament to my engagement with the characters--is that I wanted a more detailed development of how these characters reached their HEA.

The anthology concludes with “A Fashionable Affair” by Caroline Linden. As if Felicity Dawkins didn’t have enough trouble trying to restore Madame Follette’s to the glory it once knew, she must also contend with the Earl of Carmarthen who has already purchased all the other shops on Vine Street with plans to tear down all the worn buildings and build new, modernized shops in their stead. Felicity’s mother has steadfastly refused to sell, and at first Felicity refuses as well. However, once she realizes the inevitability of Carmarthen’s revitalization project, she agrees—but only if her conditions are met. Her primary concern is relocating the shop at a site that will ensure Madame Follette’s attracts the prestigious clients Felicity has been courting, and she and Carmarthen are in each other’s company frequently as they check out locations. The attraction that has simmered since their first meeting intensifies, but is an HEA possible for a woman in trade and an earl? Linden gives readers not a fairy tale in which lovers from different worlds ignore their differences but a satisfying romance in which the lovers recognize their different experience and perspectives and willingly take the risks. But, as with Frampton’s story, the ending came too soon. I wanted more of Felicity and Carmarthen’s story.

The greatest strength of this anthology is that each of the stories succeeds on its own but the four work even better together. They are connected not only by setting, characters, and the plot line concerning Madame Follette’s but also thematically. Each of the stories is a cross-class romance on some level. Each romance also considers in some way the difference between appearance and reality and the need to move beyond the surface that serves as the base for society’s judgments. The words of Henry Dawkins in Frampton’s “No Accounting for Love” would be apt had they been spoken by any of the major characters: “But with her, he felt as though he were truly and entirely valued, for his outside, yes, but also for his inside.” If you think you don’t like anthologies, you may be surprised by how much you like this one. I highly recommend it.

~Janga

Review - - The Wicked Duke

The Wicked Duke

By Madeline Hunter

Publisher: Jove

Release Date: May 31, 2016

  
 

Lancelot Hemingford, Duke of Aylesbury, has grown bored with the quiet, isolated life his brothers have insisted he lead since the death of their older brother and the widespread suspicion that Lance was responsible for the death of his predecessor. Staying out of London, for the most part, and refraining from his usual debauched behavior, more or less, has done little to alter his reputation as “the wicked duke.” His problem grows more complicated when blackmail is added. A neighbor, Sir Horace Radley, informs Lance that there is a witness willing to testify that Lance had opportunity to poison his brother. A history of animosity between the brothers and the wealthy dukedom Lance inherited at his brother’s death provide motivation. Lance recognizes that he could be hanged. Radley, a Justice of the Peace, guarantees the silence of the witness and official exoneration for the new duke if Lance agrees to marry Radley’s niece.

Marianne Radley is uneasy when her uncle summons her, her mother, and Nora Radley, her uncle’s daughter, to join him on the estate he inherited from Marianne’s father. Her mother is delighted to return, happy to take charge of her widowed brother-in-law’s household and to have greater access to his purse. Marianne, however, is suspicious of her uncle’s motives. The change in location also makes it more difficult for her to continue the writing she has been doing under a male pseudonym and threatens the modicum of independence she has won. She is not prepared for the story her uncle shares with her about the incident that led to Nora’s illness and disturbed state, and she is horrified to learn her uncle’s plans for his daughter to marry the duke, an act that will satisfy his need for revenge and his social ambition. When Radley is forced to admit Nora’s unsuitability for marriage, his plan centers on Marianne.

An attraction has simmered between Lance and Marianne since their first meeting, but the distrust between them persists. Lance suspects Marianne is party to her uncle’s blackmail, and Marianne believes Lance is even more wicked than his reputation. Pressured into marriage, they find the attraction irresistible, and less predictably, they begin to genuinely like one another. Determined to find the true murderer, they work together. But will the answer they seek open the way to an HEA or end the joy they have found in marriage?

This is the conclusion to Hunter’s Wicked trilogy (following His Wicked Reputation and Tall, Dark, and Wicked), and readers who have fallen for Lance in the earlier books will be delighted to see him absolved of murder charges and get his own sexy, romantic match in this final book. Lance and Marianne are both intriguing, complicated characters. Hunter succeeds in making the reader like Lance without whitewashing his character. He has led a debauched life, but the debauchery is balanced by his adherence to his own code and his love and loyalty to his younger brothers. Marianne is that heroine too rare in romance fiction, a woman of courage and honor who longs for independence and achieves it to a limited degree while at the same time acknowledging the limits her world imposes on her.

The secondary characters are also deftly developed. I found Sir Horace particularly interesting because Hunter portrays him as an unpleasant sycophant who does not hesitate to use his daughter for his purpose. He says when Marianne protests his plan for Nora, “What she wants does not signify. This is a matter of family honor.” At the same time, his horror at the destruction of Nora’s innocence and his need to avenge her seem authentic.

The mystery is handled skillfully. Avoiding spoilers limits my comments, but I will say that it was very late in the novel before I suspected the murderer’s identity. And I was totally satisfied with the conclusion to the mystery and the romance. The former raises some provocative questions about justice and law.

The Wicked Duke is a worthy conclusion to one of the best series from this talented author. I highly recommend it. And if Tall, Dark, and Wicked remains my favorite of the three books, it likely says more about the heroes who win my heart most easily than it does about the relative merits of the books. The entire trilogy rests on my digital keeper shelf, and I look forward to what Hunter has in store next for her readers.

~Janga 

Review - - Tall, Dark, and Wicked

Tall, Dark, and Wicked

By Madeline Hunter

Publisher: Jove

Release Date: October 6, 2015

Lord Ywain Hemmingford, eminent barrister and younger brother of the Duke of Aylesbury, is accustomed to being asked to perform services, legal and extralegal, for the Crown, but he is not prepared for the complications that accompany the case against one Hadrian Belvoir, a man suspected of involvement in counterfeiting and perhaps conspiracy. Ives, as he is known, has an uncomfortable passion for justice and a growing concern about the fact that many in the Home Office are so concerned about the threat posed by political radicals that they are eager to disregard the liberties of British citizens. Not only does the scholarly Belvoir seem like an unlikely conspirator, but his daughter Padua, who approached Ives about taking her father’s case, appears to personify the perfect mistress whose qualities Ives was enumerating when his butler announced that she had called.

Padua Belvoir teaches mathematics and natural science at a school for girls and tutors some of the more promising girls in advanced math and radical ideas about women’s rights, but her teaching is merely a means to save the money that will allow her to go to Italy and study at the university where her late mother studied. Padua has had a distant and uneasy relationship with her father since her mother’s death, but her strong sense of duty and a promise she made to her mother compel her to do all she can to see that he is released from prison. She cannot believe that her father, a man for whom the life of the mind holds more attraction than the world around him, is a criminal. Ywain Hemmingford with his reputation for aiding those wrongfully accused seems to be her best hope. Even when she learns that he will be her adversary, he proves to be an asset.

Ives senses that there is more to the Belvoir case than is readily apparent, and he can’t stop thinking about Padua. The combination compels him to delay his response to the Crown’s request that he prosecute and investigate. The more he discovers, the more suspicious he becomes. And the more time he spends with Padua, the greater his desire for her becomes, not just physical desire but a desire for real intimacy. Padua refuses to wait on the sidelines while Ives untangles the mystery surrounding her father’s imprisonment. Having played the fool over a man once, she is equally determined to ignore her attraction to Ives. But his kisses are potent and the way he makes her feel is irresistible. Soon even intelligence and experience are not enough to keep her from tumbling heart over head for this sexy barrister.

I love intelligent romance fiction, and when she is at her best, nobody does smart romance better than Madeline Hunter. She is at her best in the Wicked books. His Wicked Reputation was superb, and Tall, Dark, and Wicked is better. This time the history lesson, delivered with several heaping spoonsful of luscious romance and a generous serving of mystery, focuses on England’s legal system and a period when the obsessive fears of the powerful led to an abridgement of rights. All this and a Dantean view of “coining” (counterfeiting) as a threat to the order of the kingdom and thus logically connected to insurrection had me fascinated from the beginning.

Yet, for me, character is always the most important element, and both Ives and Padua (not names the reader is likely to confuse with other protagonists) are deftly drawn characters who are vital, likeable, and credible for their time. Padua is not typical in any way. Educated, intelligent, independent, and assertive, she considers herself too tall and too unfashionable to be beautiful. I particularly appreciated that her independent streak does not override her intelligence. She may do so reluctantly but she does accept help from Ives when she loses her job. When she does act independently, her choices are reasonable given her circumstances and historical reality. Ives has a sharp mind, a kind heart, and a stern conscience, and he loves Padua for all that she is. These qualities are as much a part of him as his wealth, social status, and good looks. He is a hero who inspires admiration as well as lusty appreciation.  And I love that these two talk to each other. Their dialogue—smart, witty, and revealing--is one of the novel’s strengths.

The secondary characters are also strong. Padua’s good-hearted, fluttery employer, the lawyer who takes her father’s case, Ives’s conflicted connection at the Home Office—all have a satisfying dimensionality. Of course, the bonds that link the three brothers are an important part of the story. I love their interactions that seem sufficiently masculine and yet clearly reveal the love these brothers have for one another. Fans of the first book will be particularly pleased to see Gareth and Eva, and it’s a plus that their appearance is quite natural to the story rather than an author’s reminder that this is a series. Lance, the dukely brother, shows that he is hero material, but he does so in a manner that is integral to this story rather than setting up his own book. His story, The Wicked Duke, concludes the trilogy in the spring (May 31, to be exact).

If you like romance that is as smart as it is sexy and as rich in history as in passion, add this one to your books to be read ASAP.

~Janga

Review - - His Wicked Reputation

His Wicked Reputation

By Madeline Hunter

Publisher: Jove

Release Date: March 3, 2015

 

Gareth Fitzallen feels no guilt when the news of his brother Percy’s death reaches him. Percy, fourth Duke of Aylesbury, was not a man who left many mourning his death, certainly not Gareth, an illegitimate half-brother whose existence Percy had always resented. Gareth has reason to be grateful that he was not in England when Percy died since there is some evidence that Aylesbury was poisoned and he and Gareth were at odds, most recently over the Warwickshire hunting lodge near Langdon's End left to Gareth in their father’s will. Because Gareth’s relationship with his other half-brothers, Lance, the new duke, and Ywain, who insists on being called Ives, is congenial, he has high hopes that he will be able to claim his legacy soon. His hopes are reinforced when Ives assures him that Lance will see that the case in Chancery involving Gareth’s inheritance is dropped. Ives, a Crown Prosecutor, also asks for Gareth’s help in investigating the disappearance of a large number of valuable works of art, property of some of England’s most powerful aristocrats. Gareth’s experience as an art broker gives him the necessary expertise, and the location of his lodge in the area where the investigation leads gives him a reason for being on the scene.

Eva Russell and her younger sister, Rebecca, have been living in genteel poverty in Langdon's End since the death of their brother. Having sold everything in their home that is saleable, including most of the furniture, Eva is supporting herself and eighteen-year-old Rebecca by copying paintings by masters such as Gainsborough and Cuyp which she has found packed away in an attic of Gareth’s lodge. A stationer in nearby Birmingham sells the copies for a few shillings. Eva has refused offers to buy her home because even though the property is much smaller than that which her profligate father inherited, it is enough to maintain a connection with her family history and to see that she and her sister, despite their poverty, still belong to the landed gentry. She believes that status and Rebecca’s beauty will help her find a suitable husband for her sister and that she can then devote herself to her art. Eva’s own best chance for happiness was supposedly lost when she refused to leave her dying brother to go with her betrothed to America.

Gareth’s reputation as a legendary lover whose looks, charm and skill have kept countless women enthralled follows him to Langdon's End. The wealthy Neville sisters, Jasmine and Ophelia, who look upon Rebecca with her bluestocking tendencies as a protégé, warn Eva that she must protect her lovely sister from this Lothario. No one ever imagines that it is Eva who has captured Gareth’s attention, that it is Eva who is teaching Gareth, who does not believe in romantic love, that it is possible to desire and respect and have too much of one’s thoughts taken over by one woman.

The friends-to-lovers trope is a popular choice for romance authors, but Hunter offers a fresh take on it in His Wicked Reputation, the first book in her Wicked Trilogy about three brothers, each with his own brand of wickedness. The chemistry between Gareth and Eva is almost palpable from their first meeting, and few readers will doubt that the two will become lovers. More remarkable to me was the friendship that began before their physical relationship was consummated and continued to develop while they were lovers. They share confidences and they laugh together. At one point, Gareth says to Eva, “I am your friend Gareth, who has seen you half-naked.” This is true not only literally but also metaphorically because he has seen her both partially unclothed and emotionally exposed. Gareth sees in her a beauty more subtle but no less real that Rebecca’s more conventional beauty. He values Eva’s strength and her tenacity, and when circumstances encourage him to doubt her integrity, he trusts her. Eva instinctively knows that Gareth is trustworthy. She turns to him when she feels physically threatened, and he is the only one who understands what her art means to her. My favorite line is this one from Eva: “Whoever would have guessed that in seeking a few moments of wicked pleasure, I would find such a good friend.”

His Wicked Reputation is also an intelligent romance. I don’t know if the art theft Ives and Gareth investigate is based on historical fact, but it feels real. The mystery is engaging without detracting from the romance. Enough of it is resolved to give the reader a satisfying sense of questions answered and justice administered, and yet sufficient pieces of the puzzle remain missing to propel the reader into the next book.

Hunter also shows the reader the role property played in the English social system of the period. The fact that Gareth’s father left his bastard son property in a codicil to his will beyond the provision required by his arrangement with Gareth’s mother reveals much about the relationship between the two. The value the lodge holds for Gareth is far more than its actual monetary worth or even its sentimental value. Inheriting land from his father gives him and his descendants a new standing. It is interesting that Gareth gives the lodge his mother’s name even though his mother, a butler’s daughter with no aspiration to own land, has no understanding of what the lodge means to her son. Eva, on the other hand, with her attachment to her family home, fully understands what Albany Lodge represents to Gareth. Property even plays into the characterization of very minor characters, from the Duke of Devonshire with his vast holdings to the newly wealthy industrialists who are buying land in Langdon’s End.

If you like smart, sexy historical romance novels, I definitely recommend this one. I’ve added it to a keeper shelf, and I’m saving space for Ives’s story, Tall, Dark, and Wicked, which is scheduled for release on October 6. 

~Janga

Review - - The Accidental Duchess

The Accidental Duchess

By Madeline Hunter

Publisher: Berkley Jove

Release Date:  June 3, 2014

    

The Accidental Duchess offers Hunter’s usual superbly done romance, with emotional conflict, sexual tension, and shadings of character.  At the same time, it ties up plot threads begun in the first book of the Fairbourne Quarter, The Surrender of Miss Fairbourne.

The heroine is Lady Lydia Alfreton, sister of the Earl of Southwaite.  He has been concerned about what’s going on with her since the series began.  In The Accidental Duchess, we find out what has been driving her emotional arc all this time, but I won’t say more lest I spoil it. 

Lydia amuses herself by gambling, so when she finds herself confronted with blackmail, she naturally tries to win enough at the tables to pay the man off.  Unfortunately, the Duke of Penthurst, a friend of her brother, scotches that plan. Her alternative leads her deeper into trouble with both Penthurst and the blackmailer.  She gambles her virtue on a draw of the cards with Penthurst and is stunned when she loses (this is not a spoiler, as it’s in the blurb).  Now she lacks the money to pay the blackmailer and owes her virtue to the man she most despises.

Penthurst is known for his arrogance and his upright behavior--except for the scandalous duel he fought years previously.  He killed a friend in that duel and was subsequently tried for murder and acquitted in the House of Lords.  As a result, he is estranged from Southwaite and two of their other friends, Viscounts Ambury and Kendale, at the opening of The Surrender of Miss Fairbourne.  Led by Southwaite, they have gradually reconciled to varying degrees.  Hunter displays her skill as a writer by not making everything fine between Penthurst and all the others at once.  Instead, she has slowly brought him back into the fold of this tight group one book and one friend at a time.

The Accidental Duchess completes the reunion of these friends, with the last holdout, Kendale, assisting Penthurst with Lydia’s blackmail problem.  This book also reveals the full truth about the duel and vindicates Penthurst morally.  His refusal to explain himself to his close friends would be difficult to accept in a contemporary story.  Since this is set in the Regency era, with his tight, narrow code of male honor, I found it believable. 

Hunter does friendships very well.  Lydia and her sister-in-law and their friends are close, confiding in each other although Lydia holds back with regard to the blackmail.  Penthurst, Ambury, Kendale, and Southwaite ride each other in an affectionate way that is endearing.  The supporting characters are also well drawn.  This was a fitting conclusion to an excellent series.

~Nancy Northcott

A former attorney who never outgrew her love of comic books, science fiction and fantasy, Nancy left the legal profession to pursue her dreams of creating her own action adventure stories.  Check out her terrific contemporary romances set within a fantasy world in present-day Georgia.

Review -- Provocative in Pearls

Provocative in Pearls
by Madeline Hunter
Publisher: Jove
Release Date: February 23, 2010












“Blame it on the pearls. They appeared so lovely above your naked breasts, Verity. You looked dangerously provocative, and I quite lost my good sense.” – The Earl of Hawkeswell






It is suppose to be a marriage of convenience. Well, convenient for the Earl of Hawkeswell as he is the one in need of a fortune. Not so convenient for his new bride, Verity, who pretty much had her life all planned out – marry the one man who could carry on her father’s legacy and live the rest of her days in her small community. Upon discovering her despicable cousin arranged the marriage in order to raise his social status, Verity takes destiny into her own hands by running away shortly after speaking her wedding vows. Planting evidence along the river to convince anyone and everyone that she has drowned, Verity spends the next two years incognito in the English countryside with a small group of ladies who hone their gardening skills counting the days until she reaches the age she can claim her fortune without the benefit of marriage.

The Earl of Hawkeswell is very frustrated, and has been for almost two years now. The single reason he choose to marry Verity – her fortune – is not accessible to him until she is declared deceased by the English government. Hawkeswell has not been able to touch one single pittance of the money. Without the reinforcements of his wife’s fortune, Hawkeswell’s finances have been stretched as far and as tight as possible. Hoping to forget his financial woes for a little while, Hawkeswell travels to the countryside with his good friend Sebastian Summerhay. However, escape is not in the cards for Hawkeswell as he encounters the very woman who has made his life a living hell, his long thought dead wife.

Determined to get his wife’s fortune, Hawkeswell believes it is in his best interest (and the interest of those in his care) to make the marriage work, so in addition to spending time together he extracts a commitment from Verity to accept three kisses from him every day. Those three seemingly insignificant kisses build the chemistry between Hawkeswell and Verity and before either one of them realize the consequences, the passion they feel for one another explodes and the sweetest of love blooms.

In Provocative in Pearls, which is Book 2 of The Rarest Blooms series, Madeline Hunter continues her tradition of lush, passionate writing that inevitably pulls at the strings of your heart and leaves you sighing with satisfaction. I am looking forward to the rest of this series and can’t wait to see what is up next for the ladies of The Rarest Blooms!



~ Buffie