#CBR10 Book 22: "The Sins of Lord Lockwood" by Meredith Duran

Page count: 368 pages
Rating: 4 stars

William "Liam" Devaliant, the fifth Earl of Lockwood, is overpowered and kidnapped on his wedding night in Scotland, taken south and chained onto a prison hulk on its way to Australia. No one believes his mad story about being an earl, or if they do, they don't care. Four years later, he's back in London, a very changed man, determined to enact his revenge on the man behind the plot to have him abducted, his own cousin. All the male retainers in his household are basically former convicts who survived along with them. In the eight months since his return to London, he's become famous for his lavish entertainments. Lockwood had not expected the arrival from Scotland of his headstrong and very angry wife, who believes he abandoned her all those years ago and has now come back mainly to spend her money irresponsibly and recklessly.

Anna Winslow, Countess of Forth and a Scottish heiress in her own right, wasn't planning on falling for the handsome, yet penniless Earl of Lockwood, yet his charm and easygoing nature was irresistible to her. Orphaned at a young age, and passed around her many relatives, Anna became used to taking care of herself. While she suggested a marriage of convenience with Lockwood (she needed a husband to get ownership of an island, he needed money for his estates), she'd started believing that he cared for her as she had begun to do for him. She certainly didn't expect him to abscond with a large sum of money before they'd even had a chance to consummate the marriage. When news greets her that her husband's been in London for the past eight months, spending her money on all manner of extravagances, she shows up to confront him.

The happy and carefree man she met four years ago is gone. The current Lockwood, while he tries to feign nonchalance is clearly also trying to get Anna to return to Scotland as quickly as possible, and she can tell there's a lot of rage just under the surface of his carefully controlled temper. When Lockwood is suddenly taken ill, possibly poisoned, Anna finally discovers why her husband disappeared and begins to learn the extent to his scars, both physically and emotionally. She comes to understand just how wrong she's been in her anger against him and how much time has been stolen from both of them, and wants vengeance against the man who wronged them just as much as her husband does. She's also determined to prove to her husband that while he's been through hell while he was away, his scars don't make him any less of a man, rather the opposite. She loves her husband and will fight for her marriage, no matter what it takes.

While I don't remember all that much about it, as I read the book way back in 2009, the Earl of Lockwood shows up as a supporting character in Meredith Duran's debut novel, The Duke of Shadows. It seems some Duran fans have been waiting for her to tell Lockwood's story since 2008, when the book first came out. As far as I could tell, some of the plots of these two books run concurrently, so I may have to revisit the book just to see exactly at what points they intersect. Last year's A Lady's Code of Misconduct can be seen as a prequel of sorts to this, set somewhat earlier, where the plot against Lockwood is actually discovered.

This book starts with Lockwood onboard the prison hulk and alternates between telling the story of his and Anna's courtship, with the sections set four years later, when Lockwood is working on his revenge. Meredith Duran does not write fluffy, amusing, easy to digest romances. She tends to have a fair amount to a whole lot of angst in her books, with tormented and frequently deeply flawed characters trying their best to find some semblance of happiness. While the sections of the book dealing with the courtship are lovely enough, there's a lot of pain and darkness in the rest of the book and Lockwood has some serious PTSD to work through, which is difficult in this day and age, let alone in a time where men were not supposed to feel or show weakness, loss of control or vulnerability. The years spent in Australia were hell on Earth for Lockwood and his men, and he suffers from occasional panic attacks without knowing what they are or how to properly deal with them.

Anna is a great heroine and while there's the occasional trope in romance that the hero will demand an heir, here it is the lady who is in need of legitimate offspring. Due to strange family superstition, the island that Anna loves so dearly can only be in the possession of a married woman, which is why she needs a husband in the first place. While her English holdings and much of her money is controlled by her husband after their marriage, she still retains control of her Scottish properties and requires an heir to keep them. She has no intention of passing them down to some cousin. While she is heartbroken and bitter at the beginning of the book, believing her husband left her to travel the world for three years, merrily spending her money, she still demands her dues from him. Lockwood doesn't want her to see how broken he really is and certainly doesn't want her involved in his revenge scheme, so is quite happy to have her continue believing he is a heartless, opportunistic cad, as the story of how he disappeared sounds too preposterous to be believed. It's only when he's unconscious, and she sees the scars all over his body that he's worked so hard to hide that she begins to understand that he might not have been lying when he initially (making it sound like a tall tale) told her where he'd been since their wedding night.

While I loved the interplay between Lockwood and Anna, I thought the villain of the piece was rather uninspiring and the parts later in the novel, dealing with his comeuppance were less interesting to me than the couple finding their way back together. The Count of Monte Christo this ain't. Duran continues to be a reliable romance author whose books I enjoy. I'll be interested to see what she writes next.

Judging a book by its cover: Lovely as the colours on this cover are, and big thumbs up for having a cover model with the correct hair colour, this silk concoction just does not seem like anything the very pragmatic and practical Anna would ever wear. Frankly, I'm not entirely sure if she's wearing a dress or has just draped herself in emerald green sheets. Then again, having the cover model wearing sensible tweed or grey wool probably wouldn't sell as many books.

Crossposted on Cannonball Read.

#CBR9 Book 48: "A Lady's Code of Misconduct" by Meredith Duran

Page count: 400 pages
Rating: 4 stars

Jane Mason is an heiress, but her money is being slowly embezzled by her unscrupulous relatives to further her uncle's unscrupulous political career and she's being kept far away in the country, to make sure she can't meet anyone who might marry her. Her aunt and uncle plan to marry her off to her cousin, and eventually, Jane reluctantly agrees on the condition that she get a season in London first. She hopes to meet another suitable man she can convince to elope with her, offering him a share of her father's vast fortune as long as she is free of her relatives.

The only man not closely related to she's had much contact with during her near captivity in the country is Crispin Burke, another ruthless and self-serving politician, who nonetheless seems to be the only one to recognise that Jane isn't the meek and biddable young maiden she has pretended to be for years. He suggests that he may be able to help her procure a special licence, where she'd only have to enter the name of the groom to get herself a legally binding marriage certificate, but first he wants her to spy on her uncle for him.

When Jane discovers that her relatives want to move up her marriage to her spineless and cruel cousin, time is running out for her. She also overhears the news that Crispin Burke has been attacked and is unlikely to survive the week. He will therefore never be able to contradict her when she runs to his family and pretends to be his wife. Only, through some medical miracle (and to further the plot), Crispin survives and wakes from his coma, with amnesia. He doesn't remember the last five years, and when he is told by his family that Jane is his wife, he obviously believes them. Jane needs to stay "married" to him until her father's solicitors release her inheritance into her control, but lives in terror that Crispin regain his memory and discover the truth.

The weeks pass, however, and Crispin is still weak and disorientated because of his head injuries. He discovers that his "wife" is intelligent and well-informed on the issues he's been working on in parliament, and comes to rely on her completely to help him navigate both his private and professional life. Jane discovers that the post-injury Crispin is a very different from the cold, calculating man he was before, and can finally be herself, needed, valued and praised for her abilities, rather than having to swallow her pride and anger to avoid the abuse of her relatives. She knows that she is living a lie and that she will need to leave Crispin before he discovers the truth, but can't bring herself to leave or help herself from falling for her "husband".

With the notable exception of one book, I tend to really enjoy Meredith Duran's books. Her protagonists always tend to be rather flawed, and frequently often more morally complex than the characters you meet in other romances. There is usually a fair amount of angst involved before the couple gets their happy ending, but it feels all the more satisfying when you get to the end of the story.

Jane's father was involved in politics, but also made his fortune through excellent business sense and by taking good care of his workers and constituents. His brother, Jane's uncle, stepped into his political seat when he got ill and continued to hold it after Jane's father's death. Incensed that he didn't inherit much after his brother, thinking himself entitled to more after he gave his brother part of the initial investment he turned into his substantial fortune, he decides to get control of the fortune by keeping Jane away from society until she gives in and marries his son. Jane's parents were both progressive and believed in education for women. When she was sent to live with her aunt and uncle, Jane quickly learned not to speak her mind, or she would be badly beaten. She instead spends the next few years perfecting the persona of someone meek, bland and rather stupid, only concerned with her embroidery, while she plots for her escape.

Isolated on her uncle's estate in the country, the only unmarried man except her cousin that Jane ever meets is Crispin Burke, a young, handsome, but utterly ruthless politician, who will stop at nothing to to achieve his goal of becoming prime minister of Britain. When Crispin discovers Jane at an inn in the nearest village, where she was planning to meet an elderly groom she'd bribed to elope with her, he more or less blackmails her to spy for him, in return for him taking her back to her uncle's before anyone discovers she is missing. Realising that her life will be even worse if her uncle ever discovers the truth, Jane has no choice to agree, but once she's in London, she turns the tables on Burke and blackmails him right back, to get the special license she needs.

As she discovers once they are "married", Burke wasn't always a black-hearted villain and his family are appalled by his actions over the last few years. As he's trying to piece together his life over the years he's forgotten, he really doesn't like the person he's become, and he relies on Jane to help him undo some of the cruel and unscrupulous things he's been working on, beginning to work against his own proposed bill in parliament. Jane doesn't feel that she can lie about their feelings for one another, and claims their marriage took place shortly before his injury, and that it was one of convenience. She claims her fortune could help him further his career, a claim that is backed up by the many smug congratulations he receives from his former cronies, not to mention the enraged reaction of his former partner in crime, Jane's uncle.

The romance is a slow-burning one and Jane is more anguished by her actions the longer she stays in her sham marriages. Initially she fears what Crispin will do when he remembers because she fears he will report her to the authorities or force her back to her relatives, and as she begins to fall for him, she hates lying to him and fears that the truth will pain him.

Amnesia storylines, as everyone knows, are really rather silly, but there are so many ridiculous plot twists to make romances work that I didn't really care. Duran actually does spend quite a bit of time giving the reader enough back story into Crispin's past and family situation to see how he gradually became the really rather horrible individual we meet at the start of the book, so it's not as incredibly implausible that he's a completely different man afterwards.

Towards the last third of the book, I suspect Duran is trying to set up the plot of a book to come, when the story suddenly isn't so much about Jane and Crispin, or them trying to work together to undo some of the worst excesses of Burke's ruthlessness pre-injury, but starts being about a dark conspiracy, abducted noblemen and an implausibly evil villain who's behind all of it. She introduces the name of another man who I can only imagine will be the tortured and long-suffering hero of an upcoming book, but the whole thing felt a bit tacked onto the main story of this book. I did like what Crispin reveals to Jane once he finally admits he's had his memory back for some time, and confesses his love for her and they have the chance to have a proper future together, with all their dark secrets out in the open.

Check out my blog or Goodreads to find my reviews of Meredith Duran's previous novels. The only one I would strongly advise readers to stay entirely away from is At Your Pleasure, which is one of my least favourite romances of all time.

Judging a book by its cover: The designers of historical romance covers very rarely bother to check what era the book is set in, they just want a lady in a dress. This is really about as generic as romance covers get. In this case, a book set firmly in the Victorian era features a dress clearly from the Regency, which has one of those never-ending skirts that only romance heroines on covers wear. All I can say is, at least the back of her dress isn't half unlaced, displaying a sad lack of undergarments, which seemed to be so popular a while back.

Crossposted on Cannonball Read.

#CBR7 Book 92: "Luck Be a Lady" by Meredith Duran

Page count: 368 pages
Rating: 4 stars

Miss Catherine Everleigh has spent most of her life at her father's side, learning to appraise antiques and become the natural successor to his auction house. Her brother got to go away to school, Catherine was tutored at home by a governess. Her father's will stated that she would have equal controlling share in the Everleigh Auction Rooms with her brother, but only once she's married. Now she knows her brother is embezzling funds to support his political ambitions. He keeps introducing her to what he considers suitable marriage candidates, but Catherine knows that they would all play directly into his hands.

Most of society calls her "the Ice Queen", a moniker she's not particularly bothered by. She's fully aware that most men do not want an educated wife whose chief concern is antiquities and running a business. However, she will not get her full inheritance without a husband. As it becomes clear her brother may actually sell the Auction Rooms, she needs to find someone who will help her seize control from her brother. The only man who comes to mind as a suitable ally is Nicholas O'Shea, the charming uncle of Catherine's former assistant, Lilah. Catherine's plan is a marriage of convenience, which she can use to gain control of her share of the business. That a family connection to an East End mob boss may severely hamper her brother's political ambitions is also something she can use as leverage.

Nick O'Shea has kept an eye on Catherine Everleigh ever since his niece went to work for her company. She's always been the perfect embodiment of all the things that he can't have. In control of a large area of the East End, without even having to break the law to do it, Nick is looking for new challenges. Marriage to the lovely Miss Everleigh would lend him added respectability and help him move his power base further into the fully law-abiding realm. A marriage of convenience, with no talk of love is fine by him. After consummating the marriage, however, he's no longer so sure about living and sleeping apart, as he wants Catherine in his bed every night, and he's willing to use every dirty trick he knows to seduce her.

Catherine Everleigh was an important supporting character in Duran's previous book, Lady Be Good. While having read that book gives a deeper understanding and shows her from other character's point of view, this book works fine on its own. Catherine is seen as a cold woman, because her main concern is her passion for her business. She was frequently made to feel that she was unnatural and displayed inappropriate behaviour by her mother, but loved nothing better than to learn how to restore, appraise and value antiquities at her father's side. The Everleigh Auction Rooms is everything she values and cares about, and a traditional marriage to someone of her own class would mean that she would have to give up on her dreams. It makes her furious that her brother is able to gradually steal money and run the business to the ground, while she is powerless to stop him.

The marriage she proposes to Nick O'Shea is a secret one. After consummating the marriage to make sure it is legal, she fully intends for them to live apart and for the marriage to be dissolved after five years. She just wants to get her brother to sign over her share of the company to her, to prevent him from running the business into the ground. She knows men consider her very beautiful, but knows they find her a blue-stocking and inappropriately masculine in her interests. Catherine also seems to view stronger emotions and sexual desire as something that happens to other people, not something she herself is capable of or likely to ever experience. Yet she feels an unexpected thrill every time she comes near Nick O'Shea and the release and pleasure she gets when she finally lets herself relax and enjoy herself is a revelation to her. Of course her strict mother has made her believe that desire is unseemly, so it takes Nick some time (and admirable restraint) to coax his wife back into his bed.

If this were an Old School romance, I suspect Nick would be a whole lot rapier than he is here. Instead, because this is a Victorian historical written for the modern woman, while he uses every trick in the book to try to seduce Catherine and make her accept that she is a sensual, passionate woman and there is nothing wrong with that, he never pushes her into anything she doesn't want to do, and on one occasion even stops in the middle of something pretty hot and heavy because she changes her mind. A very good example of "No means no", which may or may not actually be anachronistic. I don't care - respecting a woman's wishes, even when she would clearly be happier and certainly more sexually satisfied if she kept going, is always attractive.

Catherine's brother is a complete tool. He's quite possibly too cowardly and villainous for it to be interesting, but the actions he takes over the course of the novel are sadly all too plausible. Because of his betrayal of Catherine, we are introduced to a character important to a previous Duran hero, and I would not be surprised in the slightest if this lady with a tragic past turns up in a future novel as a heroine.  

Luck Be a Lady is one of those unusual historical romances where neither of the protagonists are titled, although they are from different social classes (as I think most writers think this is the best way of causing tension between the couple). I don't seem to come across those very often, and it's a nice change of pace. Duran has only let me down once, and I will continue to look forward to her romances.

Crossposted on Cannonball Read.

#CBR7 Book 80: "Lady Be Good" by Meredith Duran

Page count: 400 pages
Rating: 4 stars

Lily Monroe is trying to make a better life for herself, working hard to acheive the dreams her dead sister had for them about becoming a respectable gentlewoman and rising above their poor backgrounds in London's East End. She now calls herself Lilah Marshall and is one of the hostesses at Everleigh's Auction House, making a decent living. Unfortunately, her uncle needs her to do him one last favour, involving the use of some of her thieving skills to acquire some documents. Lilah's dirty deed is witnessed by one of the auction house's prominent customers, Viscount Palmer, who doesn't hesitate to blackmail her for assistance with his own business.

A lauded war hero, Christian "Kit" Stratton is the toast of London. He is desperate to stop the madman who has sworn to kill each and every member of Christian's family and after discovering a distinctive candlestick at the Everleigh Auction Rooms, it is obvious its owners have a connection with his enemy. Now Palmer needs to get close to Miss Catherine Everleigh, and after discovering that her trusted employee, Miss Marshall has a nefarious past, he is more than willing to use one woman to get close to the other. Tempting Miss Everleigh with a house full of antiquities he needs to have appraised, he insists that the enigmatic Lilah Marshall come with her as her assistant. He wants to Lilah to steal any correspondence of Catherine's and show it to him, or he will reveal her true background and most likely get her fired.

While Catherine initially has little time for Lilah and mostly seems to detest her, certainly complicates matters somewhat. Christian also claims that he intends to propose marriage to Miss Everleigh, but it's Lilah he really seems to be forming a connection with, as she meets him in his office every evening to report on Miss Everleigh's correspondence.

Meredith Duran always tends to go for heroes with dark pasts and complicated emotional issues. Kit is celebrated as a war hero wherever he goes, but was captured after a battle, tortured and lives with the knowledge that a madman with a deep personal grudge against him had his older brother murdered. Always meant to be the spare, Kit feels unprepared for the duties of the title and holdings he now possesses and he struggles to keep his mother and his sister safe, without being able to confide in them about his fears.

In Lilah Kit recognises someone else who presents a cheerful and spotless exterior to the world, while all manner of interesting secrets rumble under the surface. He doesn't feel the need to act the hero with her, instead acting in a very underhanded and imperious fashion, hoping to keep her from growing as attached to him as he is getting to her. Knowing that anyone close to him could be his nemesis' next victim makes him cautious, but Lilah's background and experience has made her strong and resourceful, and she refuses to be coddled or protected.

While I occasionally found the plot in turns a bit slow then convoluted, I really enjoyed this book. I didn't love it as much as Fool Me Twice, her last one, but as I consider that one of the best romances I've read in years, it was going to struggle to measure up. Since I'm about a month behind on my reviews, I actually have the sequel to this, featuring the romance between Catherine Everleigh and Lilah's mob boss uncle already lined up on my E-reader. They have an interesting encounter in the latter half of this book, and I'm looking forward to seeing how their relationship develops.

Crossposted on Cannonball Read.

#CBR6 Book 34: "Fool Me Twice" by Meredith Duran

Page count: 400 pages
Rating: 5 stars

Disclaimer! I was granted an ARC of this from Pocket Books through NetGalley in return for a fair and honest review. I should also add that by the time I was granted the ARC, I'd already bought the book in pre-order, because with one horrible exception, she writes awesome books, and is on my automatic pre-order list.

Once again, the cover image has little to nothing to do with the contents of the book, although the cover model is at least a redhead, like the heroine. I don't think she wears a bright orange dress and frolics around on the grass at any point, though, and the dress is not even a little bit period appropriate. It does have a nice bright colour that catches the eye, which I suppose is what the marketing department was going for.

But what is the book about, I hear you ask? Olivia Johnston is on her third assumed identity, having stolen a series of letters from her former employer, now Lady Elizabeth de Grey (see That Scandalous Summer. She's now trying to infiltrate the household of the Duke of Marwick, her former employer's new brother-in-law in order to get further incriminating evidence to help her blackmail Baron Bertram, the man who's made her live in fear for years. Bertram was one of the duchess of Marwick's former lovers, and Olivia has heard Marwick kept detailed dossiers on all his political and personal rivals. Hoping to get a post as a housemaid, she has an impressive reference from her friend Amanda, who recently became a Viscountess through an advantageous marriage. Yet the duke's household is in such disarray that the desperate and distraught butler convinces Olivia to take the post as housekeeper instead. Olivia is elated, thinking this will make it all the easier to search through the duke's papers for blackmail material. Her optimism doesn't last long.

The reason that Marwick's household is in such disorder is that Alastair de Grey, the duke, has holed himself up in his private rooms, nursing dangerous thoughts of vengeance against the men who cuckolded him with his now dead wife. He knows that if he leaves the house, he will murder each of the men who slept with and conspired towards his own political downfall with his faithless wife. In the months since she was found dead in a hotel room from a suspected opium overdose, the duke has become more and more distanced from his former life, driving away all who previously cared for him, including his brother (again see the previous book). Most of his servants have left, and the only retainers left have little to no work ethic and flirt, gossip and generally do as they please around the house. Marwick doesn't care, he just wants to drink himself into oblivion and forget.

Olivia discovers that in order to search the house without anyone catching her, she needs to whip the staff into shape. After having no luck finding any incriminating evidence elsewhere in the house, she concludes that the papers must be in the duke's private quarters, where no one is allowed to enter. When she first attempts to lure the duke out for a spell, he throws a bottle at her, but she refuses to be cowed. He then proceeds to try to fire her, as well as intimidate her physically. Olivia stands her ground, and because she's come to admire the man Marwick once was through all the correspondence and notes of his she's already searched, she can't help but try to provoke him out of his hardened shell of grief and rage.

One of the things Duran does better than most romance writers out there, is character development. Her characters are never one-sided and simple, there are always flaws and depth and complexity and usually quite a lot of angst. With Alastair de Grey, she's possibly created her most unpleasant character yet. In That Scandalous Summer, he was pretty much straight up the villain, doing everything he could to prevent his brother and Elizabeth from being able to marry. He starts out pretty villainous here, as well. Olivia gets the job as his new housekeeper because the last one quite when the duke threw a shoe at her. His valet has abandoned his duties and mainly tries to canoodle with the maids. The butler seems to be drowning his sorrows. He is none too pleased at the interfering young woman who keeps intruding in his chambers, and not only refuses to accept that he's fired her, but shows no respect for his station and constantly argues with him.

Marwick's a deeply unlikely romantic hero, yet Duran makes us sympathise with him, as he was clearly so deeply devastated by his wife's betrayal. He loved her and thought she'd be his perfect mate, and she didn't just cheat on him with multiple men, but revealed insider secrets to his political rivals, undermining his career. His rage and wish for vengeance is natural, and from both the previous book and his former reputation in this book, we are allowed to see what a great and influential man he was before his collapse. Now he's cruel, cold and callous, but the true culprit here is clearly the dead duchess. It's not just his heart that's broken, it's his confidence and belief in his abilities.

Having heard a lot of negative things about the duke while posing as Mather, Elizabeth's secretary, Olivia has very qualms about stealing Marwick's late wife's letters to find blackmail material on Bertram. Yet when she actually spends time in his home, reading his journals and personal correspondence, appreciating his former achievements and good works, she is shocked to see the degree of desolation he appears to have succumbed to. Even when he tries to intimidate her and drive her away, she can't help trying to draw him out of his hopelessness. She's both appalled by and attracted to him. I'm sure it doesn't hurt that even as a crazy recluse he's described as being handsome as Lucifer.

As Olivia starts having a positive effect on the household and the duke himself, the fact that she's in his house under false pretences, attempting to make him trust her and make him better so he'll leave his private rooms in order for her to search them and steal from him is obviously a major conflict here. Olivia is driven by desperation of her own though. Seven years ago, when she first arrived in London, Bertram's man left her for dead in a ditch, and now he's on her trail again. She's fighting for her life and her own safety, and she's willing to fight dirty to protect herself, whether it's lying, stealing or resorting to blackmail. So our heroine isn't exactly pure as the driven snow either.

When I first finished the book, I rated it 4.5 stars, but since I finished it several weeks ago, I keep thinking about it and coming back to nuances of the story in my mind, and I can't really find any actual flaws in the story. Duran takes such an unpleasant and dark hero and a morally ambiguous and troubled heroine and gives them not only time to properly get to know each other, building a believable, if rocky and complicated romance. I loved Olivia gradually making the duke better, almost despite her own instincts. The passion between them is scorching, even when it's rather uncomfortable in the beginning. I liked that as the story progressed, Bertram turns out not to be a cardboard cutout villain either, despite Olivia's impression of him. I already can't wait to reread this book, and after careful consideration, it's now my favourite of Duran's books. I'm eagerly anticipating her next book.

Crossposted on Cannonball Read.

#CBR5 Book 12. That Scandalous Summer by Meredith Duran

Page count: 384 pages
Rating: 4 stars

First off, I have no idea what's up with the cover. It has very little to do with the actual contents of the book. I seem to recall the heroine being described as wearing a lemon yellow dress at one point, but the dress on the cover is both historically inaccurate (I'm sure Mrs. Julien would back me up on this) and completely different from any outfit worn by anyone in this book. Sometimes the ridiculous cover tropes really get to me.

Now having got that off my chest, on to the synopsis! Lord Michael de Grey owes everything to his brother, the Duke of Marwick, who pretty much raised him after their parents' bitter and very public divorce. He defied the expectations of society and went to University to become a successful doctor. When the Duke hatches an insane scheme for why Michael needs to marry and provide an heir for the title, he refuses to give into his brother's threats. He retreats into hiding in a small village in Cornwall instead. Determined to stay hidden until his brother gives up his demands, Michael plans to stay away from all women, so his brother can't force him into marriage. For three months, he's able to live in peace and quiet, until the notorious and charming society beauty Mrs. Elizabeth Chudderey passes out drunk in his rose bushes. A very merry widow indeed, if the gossip is to be believed, Elizabeth has taken to drowning her sorrows when things don't go her way. And when her suitor unceremoniously dumps her after he finds out that she's not as rich as he believed, she drinks even more than is wise, and ends up on Michael's doorstep.

Elizabeth is not as vapid and shallow as the society papers would have people believe, and spends a large amount of money taking care of her estates, and those who live and work on them. She funds schools for several young men in the village, and knows that she'll need to marry soon, and to someone wealthy, to support the running of the estate and all her dependents. A summer flirtation with a handsome, but penniless country doctor is certainly not what she needs.

Meredith Duran's last romance, At Your Pleasure, was one of the most disappointing books I read last year, and it was even more of a crushing letdown because I've pretty much loved all of her previous romances. To have a writer I've come to trust to write excellent, if often rather angsty romance novels deliver a book I could barely bring myself to finish was disheartening. So it was a huge relief when the novella that preceded this book, Your Wicked Heart, was a good one, and That Scandalous Summer has restored my faith in Duran and her writing, for now.

Michael is a bit of a rake, and certainly has a reputation as a ladies' man, especially after an unfortunate incident in his past where he was spotted leaving the house of a prominent society widow. He's also a dedicated doctor, though, and deeply scarred by first his parents' disastrous marriage, and then his brother's. At the beginning of the novel, he truly seems to believe that marriage is the fastest way to kill love, or even affection, and he has no intention of shackling himself to a woman and saving the title because his brother's decided to become a celibate recluse.

Elizabeth's parents had a passionately loving marriage, while she herself married a wealthy man for security and lived to regret it. When his investments turned out to be unwise, and she ended up a lot less wealthy after his death, she was further shown the unreliability of men by her faithless suitor. After her mother's death, she's clearly developed a bit of a drinking problem, using alcohol to numb herself in a number of situations. Yet she rarely feels the need to drink around Michael, and because she believes him to be the complete opposite of what she's looking for in a man (poor, untitled, working for a living), she's able to show him a side that she's never able to reveal to her set of wastrel society friends.

For those who have read some of Duran's earlier books, there is an appearance of James and Lydia from Bound By Your Touch and there's also mention of some other characters from earlier books. There's also clearly setup for future novels in this book, I'm assuming Michael's rather unsympathetic older brother Alistair (the Duke) is going to feature in one of them. Elizabeth also has a rather mysterious acting secretary who disappears suddenly at the end of this book (who also appears briefly in the prequel novella), so I assume she's going to get a book at some point. I'm happy to say, that based on this book, I will again be pre-ordering Duran's books in the future.