Series: The Shaws, #3
Tropes & Traits: damaged, titled hero
Genre/Setting: Historical; London, England
Publication Date: 12.04.18
Heat Level: 4/5
Rating: 4 stars
Both our hero and heroine are quite scandalous. Adrian Sterling, Duke of Preston, is a widower, considered to be scandalous because of his rakish behavior and unconfirmed (and undenied) rumors about the truth of his birth. Lady Livia Shaw is already rather scandalous simply because of her family's reputation, but she keeps a scandalous secret of her own and because of it has determined that she can never marry. The two meet as Livia is being attacked by a gang of street thieves and Adrian comes to her rescue. He brings her to what is soon to be his mistress' house to recover, then after she makes a comment he disapproves of, he kissers her out in the street where everyone can see them, thus causing more tongue-wagging scandal. Her mother determines that she should make it appear as if she and the duke were courting, then she can give him the cut direct when the family leaves for the country in a few short weeks. However, Livia soon realizes she has lost a precious memento somewhere during the encounter and enlists the duke's help in recovering it. In this process, the two spend a good deal of time together and Adrian begins to consider developing something serious, meanwhile Livia is wholly committed to ending their relationship.
Both Adrian and Livia initially struck me as typical pompous aristocrats. Even Adrian's taking in of a thief to train as a page was handled rather sloppily and in a condescending manner. Once her secret was revealed, I also found the heroine to be rather melodramatic and her reason for determining to remain unmarried to be feeble. Her determination to keep distance between herself and Adrian was downright hurtful to him and I felt like at many times she was really just using him and toying with his feelings, when he was considering being truly vulnerable with her. He mostly treated her with respect and kindness and didn't deserve that. Her insistence on continuing to mention an old flame and toy with the idea of being with him instead of Adrian, despite the fact that said old flame has clearly proven himself to be a terrible person, was just ridiculous and made me lose respect for the heroine. I just found her to be inordinately insipid and it took her entirely too long to see the truth of her childhood love. It seemed like she just created a lot of problems unnecessarily. Thankfully, her twin sister had some sense and helped her see it too. However annoying, this is oftentimes how people behave and treat one another, so it gives this book a realistic air. At least Livia finally did see sense and begin to forgive herself and move on.
Overall, Livia and Adrian finally learned to be honest with one another and grow together to build a solid and believable relationship and ignore scandal and rumors. I found this to be an enjoyable read that held my attention and now I want to go back and read the other installments of the series.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All opinions are my own.
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