Hero: Christian Allardyce, Marquess of Dearne
Heroine: Lady Letitia Randall
Grade: 4.5 out of 5
They proved their bravery fighting for His Majesty’s Secret Service and were rewarded with brides of great beauty and breeding. But one member of the Bastion Club has remained a bachelor . . . until now.
“Christian, I need your help. There is no one else I can turn to . . . L.”
When Christian Allardyce, 6th Marquess of Dearne, reads those words, his world turns upside down. Lady Letitia Randall is a woman like no other, and the day he left her behind to fight for king and country was the most difficult of his life. He never forgot the feel of her lips against his, but never expects to see her again. Yet now she seeks his help, and Christian knows he will not resist her plea.
Letitia believes that Christian abandoned her when she needed him most, and she hates to call on his aid. But to clear her brother’s name, she has sworn to use every weapon at her command, even if it means seducing her ex-lover. Yet all the while, Christian is waging a war of his own—a campaign of pure pleasure and sweet revenge that will take them both beyond the edge of desire.
It’s been so long since I’ve read a Stephanie Laurens book that I didn’t know what to expect. I was a bit wary to try her on since I distinctly remember how much I hated Vane Cynster’s story, but this book caught my eye and I decided that I was going to give SL another go round. I’m glad I did because I rather enjoyed this story. I’m really late to the Bastion Club series party because this is one of the last books in the entire series but I think that Stephanie Laurens did a great job of making it easy to fall into this story.
This is Lord Christian Allardyce and Lady Letitia Randall’s book. Christian and Letitia have history together but then Christian goes away for the military thinking Letitia would wait for him and comes home to find out that wait for him, she didn’t. They haven’t talked since he’s come back but then Letitia’s husband is murdered and her brother is blamed for it. Knowing that her brother is innocent of the charges but unable to find him to prove his innocence, she has no one to trust since her late husband’s butler is yappin’ at the mouth so she turns to the one person who she trusts but probably shouldn’t…Christian.
Christian can’t turn her away so he agrees to help her get to the bottom of the matter and find out the truth. She can’t help her if her brother is guilty but he promises to do all he can to find out what went down. So together they set out to find out what happened and who killed her husband.
As they go about uncovering the truth, Letitia finds out a lot of things about her husband that she didn’t know…and that’s a lot of crap. Things pop up and she finds out a whole lot more than she expected but all of this made for some great reading. I enjoyed seeing Christian try to win Letitia back and I enjoyed just reading about these two period.
Christian was a fantabulous hero. One of those serious but smexy heroes that you can’t help but love. He’s got a bit of darkness in him that will draw everyone to him like a moth to a flame. He’s a sexy beast and man, I was kinda bummed that the book ended taking him and his character with it.
Letitia got on my nerves from time to time (which seems to be the norm these days in the books I’m reading, all heroines have been getting on my nerves) but I did like her. She wasn’t one of those heroines that made you want to karate chop her in the neck but she wasn’t one of those heroines that you’ll remember for a long while afterward.
SL did a great job of pulling me into this story and I enjoyed seeing each clue bring them closer and closer to solving the murder of George Randall. It’s an enjoyable read, so I would recommend this book to those who have read the other books (you’d probably enjoy this book more) or better yet, if you want to read about a smexy hero who is great in the sack? This is the book for you.
This book is available from Avon. You can buy it here or here in e-format.