GENRE: Historical Romance
SETTING: England, 1869
SERIES: Seduction, book 2
AUTHOR SITE: link
MY GRADE: B
SYNOPSIS: In all his time as a prostitute at Lavender Hills, Gideon Drake has never been hired out, never been allowed to leave the gilded cage in which he pleasures the well-heeled wives of London. So when a young widow convinces Lady Lavender to release her prize stud for a week-long seduction at a country estate, Gideon spies his chance for escape. It is the perfect plan -- until his beautiful client reawakens a passion he thought long dead… After her husband’s death, Elizabeth Ashton knows she must remarry, but not just any man will do. She must find Lord Ashton’s long-lost bastard nephew and convince him to wed, cementing his claim to the family fortune. Of course, rescuing herself from certain ruin means venturing into Lavender Hills and putting her life into the hands of a dark, handsome rogue as notorious for his cold heart as he is for his sexual expertise. Somehow, Elizabeth must convince him to love her, to marry her, and ultimately to save her. One touch will ignite the flame of their passion. One kiss will prove this liaison unlike the others. Bound by desire and need, only together are they strong enough to face down their enemies -- and to claim the promise of love.
MY THOUGHTS: Red-haired and green-eyed widowed Elizabeth has ulterior motives for seeking Gideon out. He doesn't know it but she knows who he really is and wants to give him things that belong to him, things regarding her estate. I don't know why she didn't just contact Gideon and explain some things to him right from the start.
I really like Gideon. He's about thirty. He's got a proverbial hard shell built all around him. He's so full of anger towards everyone and is very callous. He's an unhappy prostitute to women and has been for almost fourteen years. I like Elizabeth too. She's a really good person. She's raising her dead sister's children while passing them off as her own. Her staff is all or mostly made up of people who were once in bad situations themselves and she'd do anything for any of them.
I'm really irritated that we're told Lady Lavender, the French owner of the brothel he works at, knows his terrible secret, that's what she's blackmailing him with, but we aren't told how on earth it's possible for her to know. There's no possible way she could know his secret. This doesn't sit well with me at all. An incident happened to her years ago involving his father and she seems to be taking her hatred of his father out on him. But that doesn't explain how she knows his secret.
There's also a mystery going on in this story that was interesting. Someone's out to kill Elizabeth. There was no mention of why they let that person go after they'd murdered a member of their staff and attempted to murder Elizabeth.
Even though there are some things in the story that need explaining and to be expanded upon I did find the whole story interesting.
I received this from the publisher in 2013 in exchange for an honest review.
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