Between the Devil and Desire
by Lorraine Heath
Avon, 2009, ISBN #978-0-06-135564-6
Historical Romance
The ladies of the ton won’t stop whispering about deliciously wicked Jack Dodger –once a theiving street urchin, now the wealthy owner of London’s most exclusively gentleman’s club. There’s no pleasure he hasn’t enjoyed, no debauchery the handsome scoundrel won’t provide for the lords who flock to his house of carnal intrigue.
Olivia, Duchess of Lovingdon, would never associate with such a rogue. So when Jack is named the sole heir to the duke’s personal possessions, the beautiful, well-bred lady is outraged. Now, Olivia is forced to share her beloved home with this despicable man.
But Olivia’s icy disdain is no match for Jack’s dangerous charm. His touch awakens desire. His kiss demands surrender. She will struggle to bar Jack from her heart… but her body, coveting divine release, will not let her bar him from her bed.
From the very first sentence in Chapter 1, the tension and rivalry between Jack and Olivia leap off the page of this book.
The devil had come to call.
Jack’s life had always been difficult. His mother had sold him as a child and he eventually ended up on the streets of London learning how to fend for himself as a thief. As a young adult, with a little financial backing from an unnamed sponsor, Jack opened a club for the rich and idle and soon had become a successful business man. If there’s one thing that Jack had learned in his life, it was to value money and property and he made it his life’s mission to keep acquiring more of both. So, when he is presented with the will of a man he’d barely known, which turned over all unentailed monies and properties to Jack in exchange for his guardianship for the Lovingdon her, Jack happily agrees and immediately sets out to inventory his new acquisitions.
One of the things I enjoyed most about this story, was Jack. He was wonderfully consistent and open about his greed. Everything included in the inheritance he immediately sees as ‘his’ and he makes no bones about it. If the widow Lovingdon wants anything, he’s happy, of course, to consider selling it to her. For a good price. He even goes so far as to suggest that her room, board and clothing may be his property, unless she’s willing to work for him as a hostess.
Jack is an absolute delight and his character remains refreshingly open and consistent throughout the story. He reminds me not a little of Clark Gable’s acting as Rhett Butler. He’s plain talking and bold. And he enjoys tweaking the very proper widowed Duchess.
Olivia has been raised to be an exceptional wife and hostess. She married the man her father asked her to and, even if she found herself very lonely after giving her husband his heir, she never expected much different from her life. She did her duty. And when her elderly husband died, she expected to retire to the country and raise her son in peace. Then she found out about the will and wondered if her husband hadn’t been insane before he died.
Afterall, what Duke in his right mind would leave the guardianship of his heir to a known ne’er–do-well owner of a House of Vice? They were expected to live in the same house? To get along? Not if Olivia has anything to do about it.
Olivia is no slouch herself. She’s no selfish Scarlett, she’s a smart, refined woman who is determined to protect her son from the questionable morality of his new guardian. Even if she is mildly intrigued about the fellow in some deeply repressed area of her mind, she just knows he’s trouble and she’s determined to remove her son from his influence. Olivia remains very true to her character until she grows a bit and learns what she really wants.
There were a very few moments in this story where I started to *rolleyes* at sterotypical romance cliche situations but, to my delight, Ms Heath turned them on their ear. For example, when Jack convinces Olivia to dress like a boy to go with them to the Crystal Palace, not only does everyone realize it’s a bad idea, they choose the one day of the week that the masses go (and the ton will be unlikely to be present to recognize her), and NO ONE IS FOOLED by her disguise! It’s fun to hear the background comments as people remark on the oddity of a girl dressed like a boy. Refreshing.
Overall, this was a delightful read and one I didn’t want to end.
High recommended!
No comments:
Post a Comment