“Some day, when you have the most to lose…I’ll take it all.”Jonah Armstrong, Earl of Haywood, and the Duke of Hadleigh were best friends until a scandal involving Hadleigh’s fiancée destroyed their friendship. Three years later, Jonah returns from the Crimea as a war hero and London’s most eligible bachelor, setting the gossip afire and fanning Hadleigh’s long-simmering rage into an inferno. Hadleigh has not forgotten his old friend’s betrayal, and now that Jonah has returned, he will take his revenge.
Lady Cecelia Randolph has loved Jonah Armstrong for as long as she can remember. The moment they share a passionate kiss, she dares to hope that he feels the same for her and that his attention is driven by more than his desire to taunt her brother or his desperation for her dowry. It isn’t until Hadleigh’s quest for vengeance nearly destroys her that she realizes that Jonah loves her enough to risk everything to protect her.
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This book just didn't hit the mark with me. Everything was just okay. The characters were okay. The plot was okay. The writing, fine. It just never elevated itself to something special that set itself apart from all the other romances I like to read.
I think that my main issue was with the lack of sensuality and sexual tension. I never felt that the two main characters really felt much for each other and even then, I couldn't understand their motivations. Was Jonah really falling for Cecilia or was it all a ruse? We were told but weren't shown so I didn't really believe it.
Another little bugbear of mine is when two main characters have similar names (or at least names with the same initial). Hadleigh did this while Haywood did that - for some reason I can't easily distinguish between them which draws me out of the story as I try and figure out what's going on. That could just be a personal idiosyncrasy so I haven't let this affect my rating overly much.
If you have this book and are happy with a sweet, uncomplicated Victorian romance story then it's certainly not offensive. But if you're looking for something a little bit, well, more, then I can't really recommend this to you.
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293 pages
* I received this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. *
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