Review -- The Sins of Viscount Sutherland

The Sins of Viscount Sutherland
The Lords of Sheffield Square—Book 1
By Samantha James
Publisher: Avon
Release Date: May 31, 2011

Claire Ashcroft wants revenge. Her brother, Oliver, was killed in a duel and she wants the man responsible for his death to pay. So, Claire comes up with a plan to settle the score. She pretends to be a widow and intends to make the disreputable Viscount Sutherland fall in love with her so she can then break his heart. What she doesn’t realize is that the viscount has no intention of falling in love—he only seeks to have her in his bed because his heart was broken and closed off years ago.

Grayson Sutherland has been down the path of love and was burned, but not in the usual way. He has since gone from mistress to mistress and that’s the way he likes it: no strings attached. When he meets Claire, he is instantly captivated by her beauty and delighted to discover she is a widow. Her innocent manner clashes with her widow status and that intrigues him even more. But when all secrets are revealed, who will win?

I have enjoyed Samantha James’s books in the past and am a huge fan of The Secret Passion of Simon Blackwell (which was one of my favorite books of 2007), but unfortunately The Sins of Viscount Sutherland was a miss for me. And it’s a shame because it was an interesting storyline and I really liked Gray! You all know that I love me some sexy rakes with dark secrets and he fit the bill quite nicely. However, I didn’t care for Claire at all. To me, she just wasn’t a likable character. As I continued reading, I kept hoping and hoping that she would grow on me, but she never did. Her behavior changed from composed to angry so often and so quickly that I found myself wondering what Gray could possibly see in her. And just when I thought she was finally going in the right direction—bam!—she’d do or say something that made me want to strangle her again. I can easily forgive a heroine if she starts off that way and matures through the course of the book, but Claire was acting that way until almost the very end. And it’s hard to root for someone like that. I can only hope that Ms. James’s next book will feature a heroine I can connect with. In the meantime, I recommend giving this book a pass.

~Andrea