London's most notorious seducer, Nicholas Challoner lives solely for revenge . . .
The dashing, licentious Marquess of Ranelaw can never forgive Godfrey Demarest for ruining his sister—now the time has come to repay the villain in the same coin. But one formidably intriguing impediment stands in the way of Nicholas's vengeance: Miss Antonia Smith, companion to his foe's unsuspecting daughter.
Having herself been deceived and disgraced by a rogue—banished by her privileged family as a result and forced to live a lie—Antonia vows to protect her charge from the same cruel fate. She recognizes Ranelaw for the shameless blackguard he is and will devote every ounce of her intelligence and resolve to thwarting him.
Yet Antonia has always had a fatal weakness for rakes...
Sparrowgal's rating - 8.5/10
Sparrowgal's thoughts - Spoiler Alert!
This was my first Anna Campbell book, and it was a great introduction! The book had some good reviews so I decided to start with this. And that she was Australian was cool to boot!
The plot is one of the standard historical romance themes - reknowned rake hellbent on revenge falls in love. The heroine is a disgraced lady of blue blood hiding after a mistake in her youth. Only at the end are they united as one of them lays on their deathbed and vows of love are exchanged.
The witty dialogue between the two characters endears you to Antonia. Her ascerbic sharp tongue, and her hiding her beauty underneath unflattering clothes (which of course is recognised by a well known womaniser such as Nicholas) makes you wonder at what travesty she had in her past that has pushed her to this. I like the older heroine, and Antonia at 27 is considered old by regency standards, but is a perfectly acceptable marrying age.
One thing that irritated me about this book is her constantly melting in his embrace as she is trying to avoid him. That only happens in the earlier part of the book though, and her surrender to allowing herself two nights of passion are both believable and poignant, and the scenes between them are not always sexually charged - there is a moment in the book where she is exhausted from nursing her cousin (for whom she chaperones) and he shows his softer, caring side (as all great heroes do). Her cousin turns out to be very astute, which I very much liked.
I read this book till the wee hours of the morning, as I could not put it down, which means that I will be looking forward to reading more Anna Campbell in the future!
