Review: Her Notorious Viscount by Jenna Petersen

Publisher: Avon, Harper Collins

Hero: Nicholas Stoneworth
Heroine: Jane Fenton
Grade: 4.5 out of 5

Beauty and her beast . . .

Viscount Nicholas Stoneworth is infamous—even being mentioned in the same breath with him is enough to ruin a lady’s reputation. Why, the man’s spent years in London’s underworld pursuing every sort of vice while parlaying his hard muscled body into fame and fortune as a fighter! With his brother’s untimely death, Nicholas must assume the title and relearn the civilized ways of the ton . . . and proper Jane Fenton is more than willing to teach him everything she knows.

Circumstances may have forced Jane into the role of ladies’ companion, but she knows the danger of associating with a notorious man like Nicholas, a man who could tempt any woman into certain scandal. But her brother disappeared into the same underworld four long years ago, and if she transforms the libertine into a gentleman, he will use his connections to find him. Still, Jane will not—cannot—lose control. She must ignore the promise of sinful pleasure in his eyes . . . and her own wild desires desperate to break free.

Jenna Petersen does a great job of roping her readers in with outstanding characters and a storyline that grabs a hold of you and doesn’t let go. The last book (and the first book) that I read by her, LESSONS FROM A COURTESAN, I really enjoyed. I thought that Justin (the hero from LFAC) was such a jerky, frustrating man but I couldn’t help falling for him anyway. There were times when I wanted to ring Ria’s neck but I ended up really liking her character. What I thought was pretty funny in this story was that I had the complete opposite reaction to these characters then I did from the characters of the last book.

Nicholas Stoneworth is the second son of a Viscount and because he couldn’t do a damn thing to please his father, he rebelled. He lost himself in the underworld and excelled at being a boxer. He loved living in the underworld and when disaster strikes at home, he must return to the society that he hates. He must step into shoes that he never wanted to step into and he must become the man that his brother was so that he can secure a good future for his nieces. It’s been a long time since he’s lived in polite society so he’s got a lot of work to do if he’s gonna remember everything that he has to do from here on out and that’s where the heroine, Jane Fenton, comes into the picture.

She’s the lady that is going to help whip Nicholas into shape, but she comes with a price. For her help in making him the perfect gentleman, he must help her find her brother who disappeared in the underworld.

It’s the perfect set up and I really enjoyed getting to know these two and watching them fall for each other. I especially loved watching Nicholas fall in love with Jane because he sure did take his time going about it. I thought they were a lovely couple and such a delight to get to know.

Jane was a good heroine, one that I liked from the very beginning. She was very brave, very courageous and she was just a likable heroine. She was headstrong but not in an annoying way. She had feelings and she loved and she didn’t hide behind them, she went out of her way to find out the truth about her brother and I admired her for that. I admired that she didn’t give up hope and I loved how honest she was. I loved that JP didn’t make her keep any unnecessary secrets, it’s always a nice surprise when you get honesty between a hero and heroine when you’re expecting the shit to hit the fan. So good on ya for that one, JP.

Nicholas. Stone. I love him. A lot. I loved how macho tough he was on the outside and how soft and gooey he was on the inside. I loved how he slowly came to care for Jane and I loved the way that he was with her. His flirty side never failed to melt my insides and his protectiveness over her, even to her cousin, got all of my insides tingling with gooey goodness. He was the perfect match for Jane and I just loved, loved, loved him.

This book was an overall great read, it didn’t lag anywhere. The book takes off from the beginning and keeps on going until the end. I was pretty happy with this book and cannot wait for more from Jenna P (as I have come to call her in my head). Great job on this book, Jenna and when can we expect more from you? A definite recommend from me, kudos to Jenna Petersen on another winner in my book.

This book is available from Avon. You can buy it here in print, here in e-format or here in the Kindle edition.

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