Kate Worth

Self-Pub
Publication Date: July 11, 2012
Genre: Historical Romance
Source: Author

When pastry chef Jane Gray tries to sell a locket to an upscale Victorian boutique, she becomes the unlikely subject of a massive police hunt and fodder for London’s salacious tabloid press. Secrets unravel, lies are exposed, and Jane finds the last thing she expected… love.

Jane works tirelessly to provide a good life for her adopted daughter Pip, but her peaceful, predictable existence is shattered when the Duke of Rutledge demands custody of his niece. Charming and handsome, the duke’s younger brother Finn spends his leisure time between the sheets of London’s most beautiful, wanton women. The seasoned rake is perplexed by his growing attraction to demure, virtuous Jane… definitely not his usual type. If she were any other woman, he would simply make her his mistress. Instead, he is forced to consider more honorable means of achieving his desires. While eagerly plotting her submission, he fabricates excuses to spend time with her. It soon becomes evident there is more to Jane than meets the eye, and Finn longs to possess the passionate, sensual woman hidden beneath her modest facade.

When a scandal rag threatens to print false stories about the duke and his “love child,” Finn offers marriage under the guise of protection, but his true motives are less altruistic. Jane’s marriage draws the attention of a madman from her past. When his beloved wife is threatened, Finn enters London’s dangerous underworld in a heart-stopping race to save the woman and child who have become his whole world.

I first discovered this book from a review Kimba posted last week, in which she spoke so highly of it that I knew I had to give it a chance. I added the book to my to-read list on Goodreads and shortly after the author so very kindly contacted me and asked if I’d review it on the blog. And that’s the long, sordid tale of how this post came to be. In case any of you cared. Anyway, I wouldn’t say I loved it as much as Kimba, but I did enjoy the book overall.

The beginning was a hot mess. It was like watching a movie that had choppy, unrelated scenes shown back to back that left no clues as to what the movie was about, or even who the main characters were. I had to stop reading and look up the synopsis a couple of times to remind myself of what was supposed to eventually be happening. A lot of the the initial info dump could have been edited out, and the beginning would have flowed a lot better. Once we got past the choppy “scenes” and chapters, the book seemed to settle down and I wasn’t spending as much time staring at my Kindle in bewilderment.

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