TEMPTED BY HIS KISS

Author: Tracy Anne Warren ISBN: 9780061673405 2/2009 HISTORICAL Publisher: AVON
Historical: 1809 Regency

Orphaned beauty Meg Amberley never planned to pose as Lord Cade Byron’s fiancée. Caught in a snowstorm, she takes refuge at his estate. Stranded together, Meg soon finds herself falling under Cade’s spell. When the roads clear, she intends to leave, but fate intervenes. Haunted by his past, Cade Byron has buried himself in the country. Then Meg—with her lush curves and soft, blonde hair—invades his house and his life. With her reputation compromised, he proposes a pretend engagement and a London Season where she can find a husband. But as their charade deepens, Cade can’t let her go . . . vowing to tempt her with a kiss that just may lead to forever.

RRAH's THOUGHTS AND PONDERINGS:

The heroine of TEMPTED BY HIS KISS is a sometimes frustrating blend of level-headed maturity and naivety that begins as charming, then slowly becomes tiresome. Margaret Amberley, Meg for short, is quite enjoyable to read about as long as the hero, Cade Byron, doesn’t befuddle her senses. Cade Byron, not related to that Byron at all, isn’t so bad either, as long as he isn’t thinking about his actions too deeply.

Their romance is sometimes awkward to fathom. Cade is stuck in the past, stubbornly determined to stay there even though it gives him nothing but pain, and Meg is content to let him make all the first moves, convinced that every time he does, he’s toying with her. Neither one is particularly good with expressing their feelings and both act as if the world would end if they did.

The surrounding cast of characters are lively and given enough development and meaning to justify future books that may feature them prominently. I would have liked to know a bit more about Cade’s younger sister Mallory—she wanders in and out of Meg’s world to be support for Meg—but I hope that a future book might enlighten us as to her particular future.

There is some content that caused me to squirm a little—not any of the romance scenes—but some flashbacks from Cade’s (rather horrific) past tragedy. Nothing overly explicit, but the imagery leaves its mark for certain.

All in all, I do look forward to the next Byron novel and did enjoy the fact that neither the hero nor the heroine gets off lightly for their ridiculous behavior and antics.

Alexandra Cenni