Everyone knows the Byron brothers are “mad, bad, and dangerous.” But the devilishly desirable fourth son, Drake, is too scholarly to misbehave . . . or is he?

Lord Drake Byron has no time in his busy life to worry about taking a wife. He is more interested in the unbreakable code he has developed to defeat Napoleon’s forces. Little does he know that the irresistibly lovely new housekeeper he’s hired is really a French secret agent.

Sebastianne Dumont is not at all who she seems to be. Forced to spy to save her family, she embarks on a mission that takes an even more dangerous turn when she falls in love with the surprisingly tempting man she must ultimately betray. And if she succeeds in her mission, will she also break Lord Drake’s heart, while leaving her own behind?

Rowena’s review of The Bed and the Bachelor (Byron’s of Braebourne, Book 5) by Tracy Anne Warren.

Hero: Drake Byron
Heroine: Sebastianne Dumont

To her surprise, Lady Mallory Byron finds herself walking down the aisle with the last man she ever expected to ask for her hand . . . .

Everyone knows the Byron brothers are “mad, bad and dangerous.” Now their sister shockingly discovers she’s the newest talk of the Ton when she marries the scandalous Earl of Gresham. Faced with a tragic loss, she’d sought comfort from him as a family friend. But soon consolation turned to passion, scandal—and a wedding! In the bridal bed, she finds pleasure beyond her wildest dreams. But can nights of wicked delight change friendship into true love?

Charming rakehell Adam, Earl of Gresham, has secretly loved Mallory for years. He lost her once to another man, but now he has a second chance to win her love—and plans to do so by any means necessary. Will Mallory’s heart give him what he so dearly desires? Or is the past too much to overcome?

Rowena’s review of Wicked Delights of a Bridal Bed (Byrons of Braebourne Series, Book 4) by Tracy Anne Warren.

I’ve been waiting a long time for this book to come out. Mallory is one of my favorite characters in this series and mostly because I saw her storyline unfolding in the background of the other books and man I couldn’t wait to see what would happen. I had a feeling it would all lead up to this climatic happy ending for her and I was so anxious to get on with the story telling already.

This was one of those friends to lovers to true loves stories and I ate it all up. My favorite thing about this story was that the crush wasn’t the heroines on the hero but the hero’s on the heroine. Oh man that was a juicy little tid bit. I loved seeing Adam show up at Braebourne and do everything he could to bring a smile to Mallory’s face again.

Mallory’s fiance, Michael was killed in action and it’s been a year since he died and she still can’t get over it. She suffers from that survivor’s guilt, the one where she can’t bear the thought of forgetting Michael, of moving on while he lays in some grave somewhere and while it drove me bat shit crazy, I understood it. She was truly in love with Michael when they were together and grieving was only normal.

There were plenty of times while reading this book that I fell a little more in love with Adam and watching the love he had for Mallory only made him more swoon worthy but as much as I loved him, there were times that I wanted to give him a good swift kick to the groin for being such a bonehead.

His idiotic vow that he made Mallory make because of his jealousy? Yeah, I totally wanted to knee him in the ball sack because of that. His insane attitude toward the whole thing that made him jealous? Yeah, he needed to protect his family jewels because I wanted to kick him where it hurt but I got over all of that in the end because I adored Adam. He wasn’t the perfect hero but he was still a great one. I never once doubted his love for Mallory and though Mallory wasn’t the most perfect heroine herself, I still liked her. I thought she was great and the both of them together made for some fantastic reading.

All in all, this was a great addition to the Byrons of Braebourne series and I am so very much looking forward to Drake’s story. Over the course of the series, my love for Drake the scholar has grown by heaps and bounds. So much so that I’m anxiously awaiting his story.

Historical fans will enjoy this story and while I feel you should read the other books in this series to thoroughly enjoy this book, I think the book stands great on its own. The characters were very engaging and the story moved along so well that I got this book read in no time at all. Warren did a great job of showing the friendship between Adam and Mallory and she did a wonderful job of penning their romance in a way that was believable and enjoyable. So would I recommend this book?

Yep, totally.

Grade: 4.25 out of 5

GIVEAWAY ALERT: In an effort to celebrate the release of this book, we’re giving away three copies of this book for three lucky winners. All you have to do is leave a comment here letting us know if you’ve ever had a secret crush on one of your friends growing up. Share your stories with us and we’ll enter your name into the drawing. You’ll have a week to get your stories in, we’ll announce the winners in a week.

Reading Order:

This book is available from Avon. You can buy it here.