Series: Maiden Lane, #2
Traits & Tropes: reformed rake; engaged to the wrong brother; titled hero (courtesy title); second son; hero falls first; dirty talking hero
Publication Date: 02.01.11
Genre/Setting: Historical; Georgian; London, England, 1737
Heat Level: 5.5
Rating: 3/5
Narration Rating: 4/5
Lady Hero Batten is the dutiful sister of the Duke of Wakefield. She’s the epitome of a perfect society miss and has the perfect fiancé in the form of the staid and humorless Marquis of Mandeville. Hero is perfectly satisfied with her match up until she meets the man’s rakish younger brother.
Griffin Remmington, Lord Reading, is perfectly fine with his notorious reputation as it keeps the London gossips away from the truth of how he spends his days. Hero instantly dislikes him, and Griffin believes Hero is entirely too perfect, especially for his brother. But the sparks flying between Griffin and Hero soon become desire and the conflagration threatens the stability of both of their very separate worlds as they collide. Hero’s wedding to his brother draws ever nearer and Griffin has enemies who seek to destroy him for good, leaving his and Hero’s future together very uncertain indeed.
I find myself sadly underwhelmed by this one. I’m not a big fan of the engaged to the wrong brother trope to begin with, but I don’t think that was really my issue here. Instead, I found myself frustrated and annoyed by the heroine, Hero. Much of what she professed to believe about love and marriage didn’t quite jive with her actions or her conversations with Griffin. It was maddening that she was so willing to settle and just blindly follow her brother’s orders even after she had developed feelings for Griffin. It took her entirely too long to break things off with her original intended, though his reaction did at least make sense and solidify him as not very likable. I also think Mandeville was forgiven entirely too soon for his behavior and I hated his side story with him falling in love with his mistress. I’m sure it was meant to humanize him and make him more likable, but he didn’t even treat her well and I just did not care for him. I’m not even mad at Hero cheating on her fiancé since it wasn’t a love match and he clearly wound barely give her the time of day, meanwhile she had a much clearer, opposites attract sort of chemistry with Griffin. Unfortunately, the way this was handled also made Hero’s brother, Maximus, rather unlikeable and now I’ve got a bit of a bad taste in my mouth when it comes to him and his book (which I’ve yet to read).
I got off on the wrong foot with Griffin because he’s literally inside another (married) woman when he and Hero have their meet cute and it was a bit difficult for me to move past this for a while, though I will say that scene did serve its purpose in the fact that it showed a strong juxtaposition of how Griffin was before he met Hero and how he changed because of his real feelings for her. While reformed rakes aren’t my favorite heroes, I did like Griffin because he was so willing to admit to his feelings and didn’t try to run from them. He openly disclosed his love for Hero, and it was obviously very painful for him when she refused to give him the words in return. That just made me like him more and her less. She definitely seemed from the beginning of their relationship to only want Griffin for sex and not really be interested in him as a person, turning him down repeatedly when he offered marriage. For me, she took a lot of the potential romance out of this book because he’s so sweet to her and clearly trying and she just shuts him down for…reasons (not very good ones). We get feelings from Griffin but mostly just flatness from Hero. This also didn’t make much sense to me given Hero’s prior characterization as such a dutiful, sensible girl. Eventually, I was just sad that everyone always thought the worst of Griffin and he didn’t do anything to try to change their minds. He was very hard working and actually a good guy, but no one seemed to notice this beyond his mother and sister. It just seemed like he was willing to make changes and sacrifices for Hero and think creatively to find a way for them to have a future together and she was just…not. She was going to just be unhappy in her little box she’d been placed into. Thankfully, she did come to her senses and work to make things right, but it was nearly too late, and everything worked out for these two because Griffin was determined and worked to make it so while Hero didn’t do very much at all.
I wanted Hero and Griffin to have more time to really get to know each other beyond just the sexual gratification she gets from him, but they didn’t get a lot of time together. I liked that this was a fairly high steam book, but on the flip side, I only got Griffin bringing the love to those scenes and Hero mostly seemed either flat or to be just using him for pleasure. I still believed in their love for each other, or at least his but it could’ve been stronger. It was also a bit difficult for me to stay invested in Griffin and Hero’s story at times because we get scenes with other Maiden Lane characters to set up for their books. I was fine with these once I got into them, but I was a bit jarred by some of the transitions.
I'm glad I listened to this on audio because I'm not sure how long it would've taken me to read it otherwise. Overall, I’m definitely glad I read this book and these two wound up being a solid couple, but it wasn’t my favorite story and I’m not sure I’d read it again. I liked the ending, and this book was well-written, but at the same time it left me feeling unsatisfied and seemed a bit rushed.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4695424188
https://www.bookbub.com/reviews/4023432091
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