Publisher: Avon, Harper Collins

Hero: Bramwell Johns
Heroine: Rosamund Davies
Grade: 4.5 out of 5

Never a gentleman . . . until now.

Lord Bramwell Johns, the second son of a duke, is an unrepentant scoundrel. Now that his two closest friends are disgustingly ensconced in domestic bliss, Bram is feeling strangely restless. And not even relieving London’s least deserving artistocrats of their ill-gotten jewels is enough—until the night he overhears an argument. It seems that Lady Rosamund Davies is about to be forced into marriage with a rogue even worse than himself.

Rose is well aware of Bram’s scandalous reputation, so any reason for his sudden interest in her is suspect; more so since he’s close friends with the man about to ruin her family! She has her own plan though, and Bram may be just what she requires—as long as she remembers that he is only looking out for himself. As long as she remembers that his kisses and caresses don’t mean anything. As long as she can keep from wondering whether she can trust a scoundrel . . . with her heart.

I have been pretty anxious to read this book because I enjoyed the first two books in the series. The main reason I was looking forward to reading this book was Bramwell Johns himself. He was my favorite character in Sully’s book and then again in Phin’s book and I seriously could not wait until his book finally came out. I was mighty curious to see who he ended up with and how his happy ending would come about.

I’m happy to say that I quite enjoyed his story.

Domesticity makes Bram sick. As happy as he is for his friends who have found their happy endings with their wives, he doesn’t think that life is for him. He’s still got a lot of work to do trying to embarrass the hell out of his father, and he still has a lot of sins to commit. He does a credible job of making his father mad,smiling all the while he does it.

His latest way of embarrassing his father was inspired by his friends Sullivan Waring and Phineas Bromley – breaking into his father’s friends homes and ridding them of precious jewels and valuables and then donating them to the Church. The ton has dubbed him the Black Cat and though nobody knows that Bram is the Black Cat, Bram takes delight in making sure his father knows all about his little escapades. What made me laugh the most is that while Sully and Phin had legitimate reasons for stealing the things they did, Bram had absolutely no reason to steal what he did. He wasn’t trying to steal his mother’s paintings back or trying to take care of his family. He was stealing for the sheer enjoyment of pissing his father off. He didn’t care about anything or anyone except for his friends and he lived his life exactly the way he wanted to. He made no apologies for the way that he was or the way he lived, he was Bram and he was damned proud of it.

As much as he likes pissing his father off, Bram’s bored. While he’s trying to rob his father’s latest friend, he overhears something that brings him up short. His friend Cosgrove, who just so happens to be one of the most repulsive guys you’ll ever meet, is tangled up in the Davies family. The son and heir, James Davies, owes Cosgrove 10,000 pounds and the Davies family has no way of paying up. So in instead Cosgrove wants their daughter, Rosamund Davies, as a wife. Hearing this little bit of news surprises the heck out of Bram because Cosgrove is a monster and for him to want to make Rosamund Davies his bride, Bram decides that he wants to know why. So he pays Cosgrove a visit to find out why and isn’t happy with what he finds out.

He has no idea why he’s not happy, only knows that he’s not. Because he’s not happy, Bram puts himself in the middle of Cosgrove and Rose and for reasons he’s not quite sure, sets out to save Rose from Cosgrove.

So the villain means to change cloaks and become the hero, but boy does he have no idea where to start.

He’s quite taken with Rose, he likes talking with her and he likes that she’s very practical, realistic and she walks around with her eyes wide open and yet is still inherently good. It shocks him that she’s so loyal to a family who care little for her own welfare and finds himself wanting to be with her.

Rosamund Davies does not want to marry Cosgrove but she will do it because it’s her duty to save the family. She’s pissed off at her brother for being an idiot and gambling more than he could handle, and she’s pissed off at her father for not finding another way to repay the debt. She’s also frightened for her future since Cosgrove is trying to shock her into obedience and giving her little insights to what’s in her future as the next Marchioness of Cosgrove. She enlists the help of Bramwell Johns to help her understand the man that she is going to marry and help her, he does.

Rose was a good heroine. She’s not this gorgeous heroine who is romantic and waiting for her Prince Charming to come. She’s a realist. She walks into her friendship with Bram knowing that he was going to ruin her. She wasn’t counting on liking Bram quite as much as she did and the closer they got, the more involved her heart was. I enjoyed Rose’s character because she was a good match for Bram. She was the exact opposite of Bram and she saw past his bad deeds to the heart of the man he wants to become for her and she falls so hard for him that it was too sweet for words.

Bram on the other hand was my favorite part of this story. Just like in the rest of the series, Bram dazzled me with his shocking language, his shocking behavior and just…him. He thought himself to be such a billy bad ass but he was more wicked than anything else. He was wicked in a delicious way and I love how Suzanne Enoch stayed true to the Bram we all knew and loved from the first two books in this series. I loved how Bram said what he wanted to say and made no apologies for it, he was who he was but he wanted to be better …for love. It was too cute to see Rose tame the beast that was Bramwell Johns and it was such a good time reading this story.

The story moved at a pretty fast pace and I was happily led on a merry journey with two characters that were made for each other. I enjoyed the interaction between the hero and the heroine and I really enjoyed how Bram was with Rose’s younger brother, James. I loved how he took the young pup under his wing and showed him the way he should be living which made me laugh because Bram was so surprised that he even remembered how to be a gentleman. I think what softened this story to me was the way that Bram was not this rich guy who could just sweep in and save Rosamund from ruin. He had to work hard to help her and I loved that he had a purpose to everything that drove him in this book. I loved that he didn’t have much to give Rosamund, but he gave her his heart and wanted her to trust him to provide her with so much more. The way that Rosamund believed in him and the way that they believed in their love made for a really sweet romance that I enjoyed a great deal.

I definitely recommend this book to anyone who wants to read about a sexy hero who will rock your socks and a heroine who gave as good as she got with the hero. This was a sweet historical romance and I was happy with the outcome of the story. Bram Johns was definitely a scoundrel but the sexiest one you’ll ever read.

Reading Order:

This book is available from Avon. You can buy it here or here in e-format.

Publisher: Avon, Harper Collins

Hero: Colonel Phineas Bromley
Heroine: Alyse Donnelly
Grade: 4 out of 5

It Was a Scandal Waiting to Happen . . .

Colonel Phineas Bromley is a legend—on the battlefield and in the bedroom. Though he’s won many wars, and even more hearts, nothing could prepare him for his new life. When Phin discovers that someone has been pushing his family toward ruin, he assumes the role of a legendary highwayman. Riding out in the middle of the night, hidden behind a mask, Phin heads straight into trouble . . . and into the arms of the ravishing girl next door.

Coming face-to-face with a masked man did not frighten Alyse Donnelly as it should have. Instead, she finds him rather dashing. But her foolish heart has led her into trouble before, and helping a fugitive may mean jeopardizing her own plans, no matter how enticing his kisses. Now, as the danger grows, Alyse must make a choice between freedom . . . and the chance for true love.

This is the second book in The Notorious Gentlemen series by Suzanne Enoch. I read and thoroughly enjoyed the first book in the series, After the Kiss. This story is about Sullivan’s friend from the Military, Phin. Phin wasn’t in AtK that much so we didn’t get to know him as good as we got to know Bram. I’m itching to read Bram’s story but I can be patient.

This story revolves around Phin coming back to the family fold and trying to figure out what’s going on and all that. It made for some very interesting storytelling especially since the story is told with such mystery surrounding, why Phin’s younger sister Beth lied to him about their older brother, William being on his deathbed in order to get him home to help them out. You see, over the past few years a string of bad luck has surrounding Phin’s childhood home. Things like the dam breaking, causing floods on the west side of their property, making William spend money to fix it and each string of bad luck is costing too much money and if they keep going on as they have been, they’re going to be forced to sell the property since it wasn’t deeded to them and Phin, William and Beth will be out of a home, their childhood home.

Aside from Phin coming home to help make that problem go away, there’s also the problem brewing between William and Phin. Phin’s been gone for the last 10 years and William has been left to take care of their little sister, Beth and run the estate, all the while working double time to get around since he’s paralyzed from the waist down. Phin’s responsible or so he thinks. After the accident 10 years ago, Phin’s been running away, not wanting to come home and face the fact that he ruined his brother’s life. So they have that to deal with as well in this story which made for a well rounded story that dragged only a little bit in the middle.

The characters were great in this story, I really enjoyed both the hero and the heroine but one of the things that irritated me to no end was that Phin waited so long before he called for help. He tried doing way too much on his own and I just wish that he would have called Sully and Bram long before he did but when those two were brought back into the story, gosh the smile that spread across my face could have lit up an entire city. I really loved seeing these three men together again, we saw them together very briefly in AtK and well, they were just great fun to read about in action.

My favorite among the three is definitely Bram, I’m most anxiously awaiting his book to see if he ends up with who I think he might end up with, I’m having my doubts but you never know.

Phin was a great hero, he was strong, indepent and his sense of honor was phenominal. He knew how to get the answers that he sought and he was fearless in getting them. He cared very much for his family and felt he needed to take care of them now since he’s neglected them for so long and the scene between William and Phin was long overdue and just a great, great way to show the love that each brother had for the other underneath all of the hostility. I really loved Phin’s family and I’m so glad that I got to know each of them better in this email.

Alyse. I really , really liked Alyse’s character. I loved how she dealt with the scandal and with her life the only way she knew how and I loved how she didn’t let herself get too down in the dumps that she took her eyes off the prize. She was smart and she was a romantic and she was just a great girl who deserved the things she wanted as a child. I was so glad that Phin was able to give her what she wanted and what she deserved, it made for some really great reading. She was strong and patient and just, great.

The storyline and the other characters added depth to this book and it added to the reading adventure. There wasn’t much that bothered me with this book, other than the slight lag in the middle (too much words that I didn’t feel I needed to read to get to the drama) so I would definitely recommend this book. I’m very much looking forward to reading Bram’s book because he made me laugh in this book and I seriously, seriously love him! Does anyone know when his book comes out? Gosh I hope it’s soon!

Another good book by SE that I’ve read…kudos to SE!

This book is available from Avon. You can buy it here or here in e-format.