Rowena’s review of When the Duke was Wicked (Scandalous Gentleman of St. James #1) by Lorraine Heath.
They are England’s most eligible bachelors, with the most scandalous reputations. But for the right woman, even an unrepentant rogue may mend his ways…
Lady Grace Mabry’s ample inheritance has made it impossible for her to tell whether a suitor is in love with her—or enamored of her riches. Who better to distinguish beau from blackguard than her notorious childhood friend, the Duke of Lovingdon?
With no interest in marriage, Lovingdon has long lived only for pleasure. He sees little harm in helping Grace find a proper match. After all, he’s familiar with all the ploys a scoundrel uses to gain a woman’s favor. He simply has to teach the lovely innocent how to distinguish honest emotions from false ones. How better than by demonstrating his wicked ways. But as lessons lead to torrid passion and Grace becomes ensnared in another man’s marriage plot, Lovingdon must wage a desperate gamble: Open his heart fully—or risk losing the woman he adores…
Lady Grace Mabry is in the market for a husband. She’s got to make a good choice in husband because she’s only getting married once. She doesn’t want to get stuck married to a man who only wants her for her money and she doesn’t want to get stuck with a man who was kind to her while courting, only to find out after they’re married that he’s cruel and abusive. But how does one go about finding out what guys are the good ones and which ones are the bad ones?
You go to the man that you’ve loved your whole life who found happiness with someone else and then lost them and is now a shell of the man you once knew, of course.
Grace seeks her childhood friend Lovingdon out late one evening to try to get his help on choosing a husband. That first meeting that us readers get to see had me cracking up. What a memorable picture to paint for the reader. Grace is shocked, Lovingdon is annoyed and I was laughing my ass off. That first meeting that we get to see sets the story up for even more greatness.
Throughout the entire book, I laughed at the dialogue between Lovingdon and Grace. I laughed through each and every single scene with these two in it (when I wasn’t swooning from how sexy Lovingdon was). I really came to love the hell out of both of these characters.
Lovingdon has no plans to ever marry again, let alone fall in love with anyone else. So when Grace worms her way into his life and turns his world upside with her shenanigans, he’s confused by how much his thoughts revolve around her. She’s become a constant in his thoughts and at first, he thinks it’s because of her outrageous cry for help but if that’s the case, why does he keep picturing her naked and underneath him?
Grace has loved Lovingdon ever since she was a little girl and he said kind words to her after she was made fun of by the other kids. Her love for him only grew and when he fell in love and married another woman, her young heart was broken and she vowed that she’d get married only to a man that loved her as fiercely as she loved him. She wanted a love match like her parents and she was going to get it…with or without Lovingdon’s help.
Lorraine Heath delivers another wonderfully romantic read with characters that touched my heart. I fell in love with both Lovingdon and Grace , and their story. Their story made me laugh, made me sigh and made me fall in love. I loved the way that Grace became more than the girl next door to Lovingdon. I loved seeing his heart thaw toward Grace and seeing him come into his love for her was exciting to read. I was rooting for the both of them throughout the entire story and this book took me to all of my happy places.
I’m pretty anxious for the rest of this series. I cannot wait for Drake’s story. This book was fantastic, I can’t recommend this book enough. Just read it already. ☺
Grade: 4.75 out of 5
This book is available from Avon. You can purchase it here or here in e-format. This book was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
I just tried to listen to this on audio and it was *awful*. The hero sounded like he had a long white beard.
LOL, how does one sound like they have a long white beard?
I’m a very imaginative listener, I guess! He sounded like he should be yelling the British equivalent of “Get off my lawn!” Slightly better than the Catherine Anderson narrator who sounded like Mrs. Claus as played by Shirley Booth. Anyway, back to print for this one!