Caitiebelle
Written on Dec 8, 2019
Frugal Eve Dinwoody, who controls the purse strings of London's premier pleasure garden, meets her match in Asa Makepeace, the garden's owner, who refuses to let her order him around despite their mutual attraction.
- ISBN13 9781455586363
- Publish Date 24 November 2015
- Publish Status Active
- Publish Country US
- Publisher Time Warner Trade Publishing
- Imprint FaithWords
- Format Paperback (US Mass Market)
- Pages 368
- Language English
Reviews
stacey_is_sassy
Written on Nov 22, 2015
I started Sweetest Scoundrel looking forward to reading a historical romance where the hero isn’t an aristocratic Lordy Lord who thinks everyone should bow down to him. Well, Asa’s not an aristocrat, but he does think his employees should bloody do as he says and if they’re bowing, good. Asa Makepeace owns Harte’s Folly, a pleasure garden. To be honest I wasn’t sure what a pleasure garden was. Me and my dirty mind, thought it was going to be some kind of kinky outdoor brothel. Alas, I was wrong. It’s a theatre where opera, music and performances can be enjoyed. If there was kinky stuff going on, it wasn’t the main focus of Harte’s Folly.
Asa’s pleasure garden is the most important thing in his life. Unfortunately, he is rebuilding it after it had burnt to the ground. One of his financial backers was The Duke of Montgomery. The Duke’s “man of affairs” is actually his sister Eve. She had been trying to get the owner of Harte’s Folly to supply accounts and reports of his expenditure, but every attempt made to get the information was ignored. Eve decides to take her footman to Mr Harte’s (the name Asa goes by) residence. When they arrive they find a very hungover Asa with a naked woman in his bed. To be honest, at this stage this did not really endear me to Asa. Anyways…Eve threatens to cut off his funding unless he supplies the accounts. Asa doesn’t take the threat well and they come to an agreement that Eve will come and get the accounts sorted herself.
This story takes us behind the scenes of how an opera is organised. Besides the building and grounds that need to be prepared, we also see how the music director, opera singers and dancers have to work together. We also see how childminding is not only a modern day problem. Some of the dancers have children and it’s not easy to find reliable and trustworthy carers, especially considering the hours they have to work. I found this part of the story very interesting.
Eve and Asa have demons from their past. Eve has a very real fear of dogs and men which is why her footman Jean-Marie has become her bodyguard for the last ten year. He is the only man besides her brother that she has learnt to trust. Asa is determined to find out where her fears stem from and help her to conquer them. Asa’s problems are family orientated and Eve very quickly encourages him to sort them out.
Sweetest Scoundrel packs a real punch when it comes to the steamy scenes. With Eve’s issues, it takes this couple awhile to actually connect, but the lead up is filled with sexual tension. Once the couple do become intimate, you can see that for both of them, it’s more than just a sexual connection.
Really enjoyed this story and found the characters to be lovable, at times funny and interesting in their individuality. I didn’t particularly like Asa’s character at first, but I think that was due to his insults towards Eve (when she was in accountant mode) and less than stunning introduction. This was number 9 in the Maiden Lane Series. Years ago I read the first in the series, Wicked Intentions, and always meant to go back and read more. Considering this, while it probably would have made it easier to know all the other characters and their stories, I still managed to follow along well enough to make it an OK standalone.
I received a complimentary copy of this story via Netgalley for an honest review.
To buy a copy of Sweetest Scoundrel from Amazon - http://amzn.to/1lCcE7p