Lord Langley and Minerva, Lady Standon, began their faux engagement with three simple rules set down by the baron’s all-too-proper (and utterly unlikely) bride-to-be.
1. No more kissing. The intoxicating kiss Langley stole from her lips still has Minerva aflutter.
2. She will not share his bed. (For if his kiss is that tempting, Minerva doesn’t dare imagine what a night in Langley’s embrace will do to her already addled senses.)
3. No scandals during their engagement. With the infamous Langley back in Town, there is no lack of trouble he can bring to Minerva’s unblemished reputation.
Oh, the wily Lord Langley will keep his word—but that doesn’t mean he won’t use every rakish trick he knows to get Minerva to break her own proper rules, especially once he realizes that this convenient arrangement has led him to the only woman he’s ever loved . . .
Ellis Langley is dead. At least that’s what the people who killed him thought but they were really wrong. He was instead put into a French prison and forgotten but now he’s out and he wants his life back and to find out who is trying to frame him as a traitor and trying to kill him…again.
He heads to London and stays at the home of his daughter, Felicity, the Duchess of Hollindrake, but the Standon widows are now living there. He manages to wrap the servants around his fingers but when the last remaining Standon widow discovers he’s there she’s not happy at all. On top of that Langley decides that instead of hiding the fact that he’s back in town he should head out into society and force his killers to come to him. In order to do this he needs an entre and that entre is Minerva Standon. Minerva’s not thrilled, to say the least, to be pretending to be engaged to Lord Langley but she’s willing to do it not only because his personality seems to be growing on her but also to hide her own secrets from not only Langley but the rest of society as well.
This was a cute book. The romance and fake engagement were made for some interesting scenes in the book that’s for sure and Langley’s sense of humor kept me smiling through most of the book. The “intrigue” part of the book, I felt was lacking in intensity. It seemed pretty mild when you consider that Langley was supposedly killed for it.
The “nannies” as they are called…really they are Langley’s past paramour’s…were actually quite annoying to me in the story. They were pushy and demanding and they seemed added for humor’s sake but I just didn’t find them too amusing. There were a couple of the ladies that ended up being quite nice to Minerva in the end and I thought that was a nice touch, showing us the more human side of them, but overall I frankly didn’t see their appeal.
We got Boyle’s typically great writing in this story which was nice I just didn’t like this one quite as much as I liked the last in the series.
Rating: 3.25 out of 5
Hmmm, Ms Boyle can be hit and miss with me… I have to say though, the reason I'm wary with this one is that Langley is actually Felicity's father!! So what, in his 40s? And let just say Felicity is not the most likable character I've read about…
Nice review, Tracy 🙂
Nath – The age thing bugged me through most of the book. Unless I completely missed it, which I don't think I did, I NEVER found out how old Minerva was. I knew she was a widow but never knew how old she was.
Langley was 42. He originally had gotten married when he was 16 I believe and his first wife got pregnant right away.
Felicity has a very, very minor part in this book so we didn't get too much of her snarkiness. 🙂
I think it was mentioned in the previous books or in the story tree, but I'm pretty sure Minerva is in her 30s.
Okay, so Langley's not so old in our standards… but in those times standards? Oh well.
Nath – lol Yeah, in that time period he was definitely more than middle aged.
Thanks for the heads up about Minerva – good to know. 🙂