Tag: Scandalous Gentlemen of St. James

Review: Gentlemen Prefer Heiresses by Lorraine Heath

Posted September 7, 2017 by Rowena in Reviews | 1 Comment

Review: Gentlemen Prefer Heiresses by Lorraine HeathReviewer: Rowena
Gentlemen Prefer Heiresses (Scandalous Gentlemen of St. James #4.5) by Lorraine Heath
Series: Scandalous Gentlemen of St. James #4.5
Also in this series: An Affair with a Notorious Heiress
Publisher: Avon Impulse
Publication Date: August 22nd 2017
Genres: Historical Romance
Pages: 112
Add It: Goodreads
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | The Ripped Bodice | Google Play Books
four-half-stars
Series Rating: four-stars

Lord Andrew Mabry, the second son of the Duke of Greystone, has no desire to marry. As the spare, he has no obligation to provide an heir and he rather enjoys spending his days and nights in play with the demimonde. But more and more of late, he finds himself wanting to play naughty games with the American heiress, Gina Hammersley.

After her scandalous older sister marries a marquess, Gina Hammersley suddenly finds herself the darling of London with beaux a plenty calling on her, sending flowers, and filling her dance cards. Unfortunately, the one she desires most is the one who has no wish to be caught in the marriage trap: Lord Andrew Mabry.

But when they are discovered in a compromising situation, this unlikely pair must decide whether to face scandal or discover if the passion they’ve always felt is strong enough to lead them into love.

I was a bit bummed when I found out that Gina and Mabry’s book was a novella and not a full novel. I liked both of these guys in the previous books that they were in and was all for them getting their happily ever after in a full-length story but I went into this story confident that I would love their story whatever way I got it and I wasn’t wrong.

Lorraine Heath writes such great historical romances and it’s no wonder I won’t ever pass up anything she releases.

So Gina and Andrew know each other through their siblings. Gina’s sister married Andrew’s brother. Gina is thrilled for her sister and wants to find what Tillie has for herself. She wants love and the whole nine yards but the guy that she’s interested in has no plans to ever marry so she’s not about to get caught up with Andrew Mabry, no matter how hot he is. Andrew never planned on getting married because he didn’t have to. He’s the spare and now that his brother is married and will probably knock his wife up soon, he really doesn’t have to get married so why should he? He’s free to live the life that he’s always led. A happy and carefree one with no strings attached. He’s annoyed that he can’t seem to stop thinking about Gina Hammersley and wanting her. She was not part of his plans but a future with her is starting to look better and better the more time he spends with her. Too bad he doesn’t have the title she wants in a husband.

These two and their adventures had me laughing and sighing and just enjoying the heck out of reading their story. Lorraine Heath does a great job of stringing the reader along, making them a part of the story and not just a bystander.

Andrew was a great hero who really came to care for Gina and I really enjoyed getting to know him. I loved seeing him try to do right by Gina while at the same time helping her have adventures without getting caught. Gina was a great match for Andrew and I thought that their romance was super sweet without the lengthy drama of a full-length novel. Their chemistry was strong and the writing and pacing was well done and I just enjoyed it all.

I definitely recommend this one.

Grade: 4.5 out of 5

four-half-stars

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Review: An Affair with a Notorious Heiress by Lorraine Heath

Posted June 1, 2017 by Rowena in Reviews | 0 Comments

Review: An Affair with a Notorious Heiress by Lorraine HeathReviewer: Rowena
An Affair with a Notorious Heiress by Lorraine Heath
Series: Scandalous Gentlemen of St. James #4
Also in this series: Gentlemen Prefer Heiresses (Scandalous Gentlemen of St. James #4.5)
Publisher: Harper Collins, Avon
Publication Date: May 30th 2017
Pages: 384
Add It: Goodreads
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | The Ripped Bodice | Google Play Books
four-stars
Series Rating: four-stars

The son of a duke and an infamous mother, Alistair Mabry, Marquess of Rexton, fought his way to respectability. Now, the most eligible bachelor in London, marriage-shy Rexton will take only a wife with an impeccable reputation, good breeding, and a penchant for staying out of the gossip sheets. But when he strikes a deal to be seen “courting” a sweet young debutante whose notorious older sister has blemished her chances for marriage, Rexton is unexpectedly drawn to the highly inappropriate, calamitous Tillie, Lady Landsdowne herself.

After a scandalous incident that sent shockwaves throughout society and disgraced her, Tillie refuses to cower in the face of the ton. Instead, she will hold her head high as she serves as a chaperone for her younger sister, but Tillie is convinced Rexton’s courtship is shrouded with secrets—ones she vows to uncover. However, doing so requires getting dangerously close to the devilishly handsome and forbidden marquess…

An Affair with a Notorious Heiress is the fourth book in the Scandalous Gentlemen of St. James series by Lorraine Heath and it follows Alistair Mabry, Marquess of Rexton. Rexton has a bunch of siblings that we’ve come to know throughout this series. I have enjoyed every single book in this series and that didn’t stop with this one. Lorraine Heath is one of my go to historical romance authors because she writes historical romances that have that old school feel and I fall into each of her stories so very easily.

The Marquess of Rexton is no stranger to scandal. His mother wasn’t born into the aristocracy so when his father married her, she wasn’t really accepted but that didn’t stop his father from loving the hell out of her anyway. Rexton was bullied at school because of his mother. He grew up and had to deal with a scandal that was not his and he swore that when he grew up and took a wife, she would be above reproach. His children will never know the pain he endured when he was a child.

Lady Mathilda Landsdowne is a walking scandal. She’s a divorced woman who was caught kissing her footman and all this time later, she’s still paying for her actions. She has plans to leave England and return to New York to start over but first, she needs to get her younger sister situated and make sure that she marries someone who is worthy of her. Someone that will take care of her and make her happy, because Tillie knows all too well the misery behind marrying the wrong guy.

Rexton was approached by Tillie’s uncle to pay some attention to her younger sister, Gina in hopes that other gentlemen will take notice of her since Tillie’s divorce scandal has kept Gina from having the season she deserved. Rexton has no plans to marry Gina since she’s too young for him but when one of the best racehorses is dangled in front of his nose, he finds himself asking the young girl to dance…and then asking to take her for a ride in the park.

Tillie is suspicious of Rexton and she’s also attracted as hell to him. The attraction she feels for him is definitely returned and their story kind of takes off right when they meet. Rexton is immediately drawn to Tillie, to the strong front she puts up for everyone to the obvious love and support she has for her younger sister, Gina. The more time that Rexton spends with Tillie, the more that he wants her. Tillie is fighting her attraction to the man that is “courting” her sister but it’s a losing battle.

Lorraine Heath did such a great job of pulling my heartstrings with this book. Between Tillie not wanting Rexton to suffer from loving her and Rexton wanting to protect Tillie from everything and everyone around her, I was happy sighing all over the place. I completely connected with both of their characters and their situations. I wished for them to work things out and for them to find a way to be together and in the end, I got my wish.

Tillie was a strong heroine that was hellbent on making sure that her sister didn’t make the same mistakes she did and I really loved the relationship between the two sisters. Gina wanted Tillie’s happiness just as much as Tillie wanted Gina’s and I loved how Team Rexton Gina was. That was just too adorable for words.

Rexton was everything that I hoped he would be and I loved seeing him fall in love with Tillie. I loved seeing how close he was with his family and the way that they all came together to accept Tillie into the fold was just too stinkin’ good. The way that they banded around Rexton and his woman made my heart swell. He was such a good man and my bloodthirsty heart was satisfied with the beat down he gave anyone who dared to touch Tillie.

Heath worked her magic and it paid off because this was a fine romance and I’m super glad that I read it.

Grade: 4 out of 5

four-stars

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Review: The Duke & the Lady in Red by Lorraine Heath

Posted June 19, 2015 by Rowena in Reviews | 3 Comments

Publisher: Avon, Harper Collins

duke and lady in red
Rowena’s review of The Duke & the Lady in Red (Scandalous Gentlemen of St. James #4) by Lorraine Heath.

Sparks fly in the finale of the Scandalous Gentlemen of St. James Place series, as the last wicked rogue meets his match.

When Rosalind Sharpe gains the attention of the deliciously wicked Duke of Avendale, she’s torn between her distracting attraction to the notorious rogue and the knowledge that he—rich as Croesus—is the perfect target for a deception that will put her swindling days behind her.

However, Avendale is no fool. After he discovers the tantalizing lady packing up to leave London with his coins in tow, he confronts her with a scandalous proposition: she can have all the money she requires…for a week in his bed.

Desperate for the funds, Rose agrees, but on one condition: he must never question her motives. Avendale quickly sees beneath her mask and discovers she is more than passion and pleasure—she is everything he has ever desired. But claiming her requires he unveil her secrets and lose her forever. Unless he can put his own dark past aside and risk everything for a chance at love.

Lorraine Heath has been entertaining the socks off of me with every single book in this series so I knew that I was going to enjoy this book just as much as the others and I wasn’t wrong. This is the third book in the Scandalous Gentlemen of St. James series and it follows The Duke of Avendale as he makes his way toward his happy ending. Avendale lives for pleasure, scandalous pleasure and his house is open to all kinds of iniquity so in previous books, I wondered about him. Why was he the way that he was? What happened to make him so cynical and scandalous?

Well, in this book we find out.

Avendale sees her across the crowded casino dressed in red and has decided that he wants her. She’s the first woman to hold his interest in quite some time and he’s determined to have her but she’s playing hard to get…so he’ll play.

The lady in red is Rosalind Sharpe and she’s looking for a new mark. She needs money and she’s pretty desperate for that money. She wasn’t counting on Avendale to come into her life and distract her from her plans but he did and even though she must keep her secrets, she can’t stay away from this studly Duke.

Lots of things pop off in this book and Heath does a great job of stringing the reader along. She leaves the reader in the dark enough that things are interesting and not frustrating. I liked that both Avendale and Rose had secrets and I liked stringing the clues together to find out what they were. I really liked both the hero and the heroine.

Avendale was a complex hero who suffered from a secret that he’s shared with no one. He’s kept his secret with him all these years and as the reader, you can’t help but wonder what it is. When you finally find out, it explains why he was the way that he was and if I had one gripe, it was that the secret was wrapped up quite easily and it felt a little bit explained away instead of really dealt with. He goes years and years without speaking to his mother and then all of a sudden within days, they’re back to being besties? That didn’t make sense but it didn’t really ruin the story for me. Avendale was a great hero and that surprised me because I wasn’t expecting to like him nearly as much as I did. I loved seeing him forge a bond with Harry. I adored the way that he was with Harry, the way that his and Merrick’s relationship grew over the course of the book and I really loved the way that he took care of everyone and everything. He really impressed me.

Rose was another great addition to this story. Her story was heartbreaking and admirable at the same time. The way that she took care of Harry and the sacrifices she made over the course of her life to protect Harry made my heart hurt for her. She didn’t have an easy life but the way she went down fighting made me like her all the more. She was such a great heroine and I completely saw why Avendale loved her so much.

It took me a while to read this book but that had more to do with my mood than with the story itself. The romance between Avendale and Rose was fun and sweet and even a bit sad at times. They both had secrets that they wouldn’t share with the other but I understood why they wanted to keep their secrets. I enjoyed their romance, I enjoyed getting their story, Rose’s story especially from Harry and the entire book was just good. It was a great way to end the series and I find that I’m going to miss these characters a great deal. I definitely recommend this book.

Grade: 4 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.

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Review: Once More, My Darling Rogue by Lorraine Heath

Posted September 4, 2014 by Rowena in Reviews | 0 Comments

Publisher: Avon, Harper Collins

Rowena’s review of Once More, My Darling Rogue (Scandalous Gentlemen of St. James #2) 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…

Born to the street but raised within the aristocracy, Drake Darling can’t escape his sordid beginnings. Not when Lady Ophelia Lyttleton snubs him at every turn, a constant reminder he’s not truly one of them. But after rescuing her from a mysterious drowning he realizes she doesn’t remember who she is. With plans to bring her to heel, he insists she’s his housekeeper—never expecting to fall for the charming beauty.

While Ophelia might not recall her life before Drake, she has little doubt she belongs with him. The desire she feels for her dark, brooding employer can’t be denied, regardless of consequences. So when her memory returns, she is devastated by the depth of his betrayal. Now Drake must risk everything to prove she can trust this rogue with her heart once more.

This is the second book in the Scandalous Gentlemen of St. James series by Lorraine Heath. It follows Drake Darling and Lady Ophelia Lyttleton on their road to happiness.  What I thought was interesting about this book was that there were times when I hated both the hero and the heroine of this book.

When we first meet Lady Ophelia, she is giving Drake Darling (a guy who wasn’t born into the aristocracy but who was raised by them) the cut direct. She is the biggest snob and completely ridiculous that I wanted to punch her in her throat. But over the course of the book, you see her slowly start to change but you question everything about her at first because while you’re seeing her change, she’s got amnesia and has no memory of being a Lady…and this is where I started to hate Drake.

When we first meet Drake, he’s a sexy man getting his party on at a ball for the girl that grew up like a sister to him and one of his friends engagement balls. He’s tall and strikingly handsome so he’s getting a lot of attention from the ladies but not Lady Ophelia. Lady Ophelia tries to shun him in front of a Duke, who just so happens to be an acquaintance of Drake’s and when Drake gets her alone and tries to teach her a lesson, he gets a slap to the face for his efforts.

Right from the jump, you can tell that something happened to Lady Ophelia but you don’t know what because she covers her tracks by being such a bitch. So when Drake is out on a walk, late at night and comes across Lady Ophelia in the river, he fishes her out and tries to get some answers. What happened to her? Why was she in the river? Why doesn’t she remember anything? And then he does the dumbest thing I could think of…he takes her to his house and tells her that she’s his servant.

Now, he was only supposed to teach her a short lesson but after a few days of her thinking she’s his servant, acting like his servant and him treating her like his servant, I wanted to punch him in his throat. Lessons may have been needed but not like that.

So after all of that, you’d think that I hated the book but that’s not the case at all. I think it’s a testament to how much I enjoy Lorraine Heath’s writing that she pulled this one out for me because a shift came over both Lady Ophelia and Drake over the course of the story and it was that shift that kept me coming back for more. I liked seeing them change into the people they were in the end. I loved seeing them fall in love with each other before the inevitable fallout came forth. My heart went out to the both of them time and time again and when I finished the book, I sighed a happy sigh and thought, “This is why I read romances.” That happy sigh at the end means the book was good.  I really enjoyed this one. Heath did a great job entertaining the socks off of me at the same time she was pulling out every other emotion out of me. I recommend this book.

Grade: 4 out of 5

This book is available from Avon. You can purchase it here and here in e-format. This book was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

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Review: When the Duke was Wicked by Lorraine Heath

Posted April 2, 2014 by Rowena in Reviews | 3 Comments

Publisher: Avon, Harper Collins

When the Duke was WickedRowena’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.

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