Rowena’s review of The Duke’s Night of Sin (The Seven Deadly Sins, Book 3) by Kathryn Caskie.

Hero: Sebastian, Duke of Exeter
Heroine: Lady Suisan Sinclair

The “Seven Deadly Sins” lived for scandal and delighted in disgrace, but now they must repent—in marriage!

A sin he cannot forget

The Duke of Exeter knows it’s time to find a bride, and he’s determined to locate the passionate minx who enticed him in a pitch-black library. But how can you find someone you’ve never really seen? Then, while supervising his young ward’s education, he is irresistibly attracted to her exquisite new teacher. He keeps wondering if they’ve met somewhere before, never suspecting she’s the woman he’s never forgotten after his one night of sin.

A wicked secret

As a beloved instructress at an exclusive school for young ladies, Lady Siusan Sinclair is a model of deportment. But no one knows her secret—that she fled London for Bath, her reputation on the verge of tatters, her fortune lost. Still, no matter how hard she tries, she can’t forget the knee-weakening kiss of the man who led her astray . . .

This is the third book in the Seven Deadly Sins Series by Kathryn Caskie and it was pretty good. It’s not my favorite of the three books but it was still a good addition to a series that is shaping up pretty nicely. Of the seven deadly Sinclairs, this book follows Suisan Sinclair as she journeys her way to her happy ending.

Lady Suisan was one of the Sinclairs that I didn’t really think too much on throughout the other books. She was there but she wasn’t really on my radar but I did like her. Come to think about it, I like all of the Sinclairs…even the little sister that is such a jealous little shit. I will say that when this book starts and we start getting to know Suisan and her true nature, I was surprised because Suisan is a little fast thang. Especially to be living in those times…she sure did get down with her bad self.

The story starts out with Suisan and the younger sister (goodness I forgot her name already) at a ball and the younger sister calling dibs on the new duke of Exeter. Suisan is feeling down and out because it’s the anniversary of the death of her fiance, Simon and so being at a ball is getting to be a bit stuffy for her. She’s not in the mood to be around people and she could give two shits about the new duke so she rushes out to find some fresh air and finds herself in a darkened library (haha) and when a gentleman interrupts her peace and quiet, mistaking her for a prostitute, she just sort of lets him have his way with her.

Yeah, that’s exactly what I thought. WTF? Seriously?

After the deed is done, Suisan rushes from the room and the Duke realizes that the girl he just tumbled with in his libary was not the girl that he was supposed to meet but was in fact, a lady. A guest at his ball, in his home.

And he feels like ten kinds of shits.

He caught sight of her back as she’s running from the library and because sex has never been like that for him, he wants to make things right. He wants to find her, apologize and try to smoothe things over. But how in the world is he going to do all of that if he doesn’t know her name or even what her face looks like.

Suisan, on the other hand realizes that she needs to get hell out of Dodge before the new duke comes out and finds her so she tells her brothers and sisters exactly what she did and they flee the scene.

Talk about unity. There was no judging from her brothers and sisters, they just all up and left with a quickness that was admirable and that was probably my favorite thing about this family and this series. The united front that the Sinclair brothers and sisters show for everyone. It’s not just for show. It’s for real and it’s too cute. I love that they all have each other’s back no matter what the other has done.

Suisan flees London and hides out in Bath, becoming a teacher at an all girl’s school just until Exeter returns to his country estate after the season. Things were going remarkably well for her (or as well as the horse face head mistress would allow) until things weren’t going well for her and it made for some interesting reading.

Suisan is hiding from the man who shows up to check on his ward, who is a student at the school that Suisan is teaching at and she doesn’t even know it. It is while he’s checking up on his niece that Suisan and him fall in love. Their love story was slow to build but in the end, I was glad that I read this book. Both Sebastian and Suisan were not the most perfect of characters, each of them making a fair amount of mistakes before getting it right but alls well that ends well.

I enjoyed reading their story and I enjoyed finding out who’s book is next and I’m anxious for that story to come out already. I’m a fan of the Sinclair family and am always looking for more. If you’re a fan of this series than you’ll enjoy this book. It’s a likable story about two people coming together in love and sticking it out when things get rough.

Grade: 3 out of 5

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

Rowena’s review of The Most Wicked of Sins (The Seven Deadly Sins, Book 2) by Kathryn Caskie.

Hero: Dominic Sheridan
Heroine: Ivy Sinclair
Grade: 4 out of 5

They are the “Seven Deadly sins” – the seven Sinclair brothers and sisters who live for scandal and delight in disgrace…until their father decrees that they must marry in haste …or regret in poverty! Lady Ivy Sinclair can’t live without funds much longer, so she vows to land a sensible husband her father will accept. But just when the gentlemen is about to pop the question, another woman snatches away his attentions. Furious, Ivy hatches a plan–make him jealous by hiring a handsome man to impersonate a marquess–a marquess who happens to be madly in love with her. The moment Ivy boldly kisses Dominic Sheridan- to test his fitness for the task at hand- she’s sure he’s perfect. What Ivy doesn’t know is that the blue-eyed rake isn’t acting at all, but is intent on seducing her into committing the most wicked of sins.

I read and enjoyed the first book in this series, To Sin with a Stranger and I really enjoyed it so I had high hopes for this book and I’m happy to say that Kathryn Caskie didn’t disappoint. I’m in a bit of a historical frenzy right now as most of the books that I’m picking up are of the historical sort and this book was cute.

I wasn’t sure I’d like Ivy since I didn’t care for her at all in Stirling’s book but Caskie did a great job of redeeming Ivy and I ended up liking her.

At the start of the book, Ivy receives a letter from her father and in the letter, he tells her how she’s the biggest disappointment to him with her behavior around town and if she doesn’t clean up her act soon, she’ll be disowned without a shilling to her name. She must secure a betrothal with Tinsdale to get on his good side and she better get it done before he gets there in thirty days. To say that Ivy was surprised is putting it mildly, she was shocked and she was scared. Tinsdale was paying lots of attention on her so she didn’t think it’d be too hard to win his favor and secure a marriage proposal only things go awry when Miss Feeney from Ireland shows up and snags Tinsdale’s attention and dashing all of Ivy’s hopes.

Ivy’s deadly sin is Envy and she concocts a plan that will snare Tinsdale’s favor back to her and the lengths that she goes to put this plan into effect is hilarious. You can’t hold Ivy Sinclair down, she’ll take you out and do whatever it takes to get what she wants and Lord Tinsdale is what she wants…or is it?

She hires Dominic Sheridan to pose as Lord Counterton and he is to dote on her and pretend to be in love with her so that Lord Tinsdale will come crawling back to her. It’s the perfect plan only it backfires on her when instead of wanting to be with Lord Tinsdale, she wants to be with Nick. A whole lot of drama ensues and Caskie does a great job of entertaining the reader and making the reader want more from the different characters. For me, I wanted to see more Grant and Lachlan. I’m also pretty anxious for Siusan’s book which is next up.

Nick was a hottie and I ate every page up that he was on. His relationship with his cousin was a riot and his interactions with Ivy had me laughing right along. At the end when the truth comes out, I thought that was a bit rushed but it didn’t take away from my enjoyment of the book.

I thought this book was well written, it was written to entertain and I was certainly entertained. There were a few places in the book where it dragged a bit but for the most part, it was a pretty solid historical read. I definitely recommend this book to historical lovers and fans of Caskie’s work won’t disappointed.

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