A Hint of Wicked (James Family, #1)

by Jennifer Haymore

Caught Between Duty and Desire

Sophie, the Duchess of Calton, has finally moved on. After seven years mourning the loss of her husband, Garrett, at Waterloo, she has married his best friend and heir, Tristan. Sophie gives herself to him body and soul…until the day Garrett returns from the Continent, demanding his title, his lands—and his wife.

Torn Between Two Husbands

Now Sophie must choose between her first love and her new love, knowing that no matter what, her choice will destroy one of the men she adores. Will it be Garrett, her childhood sweetheart, whose loss nearly destroyed her once already? Or will it be Tristan, beloved friend turned lover, who supported her through the last, dark years and introduced her to a passion she had never known? As her two husbands battle for her heart, Sophie finds herself immersed in a dangerous game—where the stakes are not only love…but life and death.

• ISBN10: 0446540293
• ISBN13: 9780446540292
• Publish Date: 1 June 2009 (first published 1 January 2009)
• Publish Status: Out of Stock
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: Time Warner Trade Publishing
• Imprint: Warner Books Inc
• Format: Paperback (US Mass Market)
• Pages: 432
• Language: English

Reviews

[Cocktails and Books]

Thank you Amazon for having this a one of your $.99 specials this week, otherwise I may not have downloaded.

As children, no one could separate Garrett, his cousin Tristan and Sophie when they were children. So it was no surprise when Garrett and Sophie married when she was eighteen. They had four short years together before he was assumed dead after the battle of Waterloo.

Fast forward eight years and we find Sophie and Tristan married. While she still loves Garrett and misses him, she is deeply in love with Tristan and he with her. Sophie feels as if she's finally able to being the woman she's become, rather than the grief stricken widow.

When Tristan is ripped from Sophie during an intimate moment, both of them are shocked to find a dirty and ragged looking Garrett is standing in their bedroom ready to kill Tristan. The three of them aren't able to process the turn of events. Garrett thinks Tristan was raping his wife, Tristan's first thought was now he'd lose the woman that he loves and Sophie doesn't know what to think.

I loved Tristan and Sophie. Through the pages (electronic as they were) you could feel the depth of feeling they had for each. Even when Sophie was torn between the two men, you could tell that the feelings she had for Tristan were those of a woman, compared to the girlish love she had for Garrett. They truly were a team, even when they were forced apart.

Although Garrett was the villain of this story, I didn't like him. Didn't like the way he saw Sophie as a possession, rather than a person. Didn't like that he couldn't excuse her moving on with her life when she thought he was dead. And most definitely didn't like the way he tended to discount her feelings. I know he'd gone through some horrific events, but it just seemed like he couldn't get past his hurt to take a look at the bigger picture.

We do have a nice villain, who worms his way into the Duke of Carlton's life and then takes off with a precious piece of Carlton property. Of course, this is after he has completely wreaked havoc through Garrett, Tristan and Sophie's lives.

The only thing I didn't like was the way the book ended. It seemed like we were left hanging. I know there are 2 other books to the series and that the next book will probably answer all the question I felt were left hanging out there, but I wanted a little bit more closure than what we got at the end.

Overall, this was freaking good read. I know it's good when I have to force myself not to skip to the end of the book to see what's happening (which was one of the first things I had learned to do on my Kindle and then on my e-reader apps on my iPad. I know...I'm bad)

4 Cocktails