WHEN MARRYING A SCOUNDREL

Author: Kathryn Smith ISBN: 9780061923005 6/2010 HISTORICAL Publisher: AVON
Time Period: Victorian, 1877 London

A lady must be prepared for anything . . . when marrying a scoundrel. Sadie Moon once thought she was in love. Then her dashing husband left her to seek his fortune, and she had no choice but to transform herself from a heartbroken waif into London Society's favorite fortune-teller. But even she could not have foreseen Jack's return—until their paths cross in the last place either would have expected: London's most exclusive house of pleasure. Now wealthy and successful, Jack Friday has everything he'd ever dreamed of . . . except Sadie. He swears he will never trust the woman who broke her promise to wait for him, though his passion for her burns as hotly as ever before. But love, like the past, comes back to haunt them—drawing them into a web of intrigue and betrayal that could save or destroy them both.

RRAH's THOUGHTS AND PONDERINGS:

What an interesting tale Kathryn Smith weaves in WHEN MARRYING A SCOUNDREL. I must admit, at first I was not so interested in this particular story. I do not have a fondness for romance books that start out with the hero and heroine already being involved, or in this case, married. As usual, Smith's wonderful ability to entrance me with her charismatic heroes and strong, yet undoubtedly feminine heroines, won me over in the first paragraph, and the story in no way follows the way I thought it would.

Original in that the hero and heroine are Irish and moving amongst the upper-crust of the London ton: she, by reading tea leaves of the rich; and he, by making a name for himself while eschewing the title his grandfather insist he have. Both are haunted by their entwined past and undeniable desire to be together once more; their love torn apart by schemes put in motion years ago, along with misunderstandings and the pains of young love. So much tragedy and pain has to come to the surface when they chance to meet in a place they thought never to see one another. Is WHEN MARRYING A SCOUNDREL as good as I just made it sound? Yes, it most certainly is.

Beautifully crushing, wondrously mad, WHEN MARRYING A SCOUNDREL is romance at its finest. Fraught with tension, anger, passion, and a love story that reminds me of why I love historical romantic reads, I truly could not ask for more.

Shannon Johnson