An Indecent Proposition

An Indecent Proposition by Emma Wildes 720

Lady Caroline Wynn is happy to be a widow and has no intention of ever marrying again after such a disastrous marriage, but her dead husbands accusation of her being passion-less still haunt her. One night after too many drinks Nicholas, Duke of Rothay, and Derek, Earl Manderville, place on bet on which one of them is a better lover. Caroline believes that this will be a perfect way for her to discover if she truly is cold and unfeeling, and agrees to be the judge if only they will agree to complete discretion. They are both intrigued by the possibility of having this gorgeous and socially upstanding young woman in their bed and agree to her terms, with Nicholas going first. It is not long before Nicholas discovers that Caroline's history has left her scared of men and he must proceed slowly. Over the course of a week, Nicholas woos Caroline, slowly seducing her and really becoming her friend.

When he is called away early the two both head back to London but Caroline knows she can never have such a relationship with Derek. This is fine as Derek only made that wager when he discovered that Annabelle Reid, the love of his life, had gotten engaged. A practiced rake, the passionate kiss he shared with Annabelle scared him and pushed him into the arms of another woman and when Annabelle discovered this she swore him off. Now a year later he knows he made a horrible mistake and wants to win her back. He and Caroline agree to help each other, with Caroline talking to Annabelle about the importance of love in marriage, and Derek pretending to continue with the wager to make Nicholas jealous and come to his senses. When Caroline's cousin-in-law threatens to expose their wager, all three of her friends will have to come to aid in order for all of them to end up in love.

I always find it a little odd when an author tries to push two romances into one novel, but Wildes does a pretty good job of it and I did not feel like either romance was particularly lacking. We got a great back story on all of them and enough insight into what all of them were thinking and feeling throughout the book. They were all great characters and the romances were done with a deft hand. The book was supposed to be an erotica style romance and while there was certainly plenty of sex, there was not as much as I would have expected and I really did not find it particularly exciting. Perhaps the best part of this book was Annabelle, and to a lesser extent Caroline, coming to turns with their loved one's very promiscuous past. A lot of romance novel heroes are former rakes and it is just kind of brushed aside, but in this book it is truly something that they have to work through and come to terms with.

Derek and Nicholas also had to come to grips with their past and there were times I got a little tired of their excuses for not getting married or wanting to settle down. The book was rather unexciting with no fun little conversations between them, and I couldn't help but feel like the whole thing had some sort of pall over it as all four of them were working through some pretty tough issues of their own. I also would have preferred some more time with Annabelle and Derek as their falling in love had happened prior to the book beginning, and even Caroline and Nicholas falling in love was a little glossed over during their week together. There was a brief little problem with her cousin-in-law that was really interesting and for once I actually found myself wishing there was a little bit more of it. It was very well done, and rather predictable, but definitely did not get in the way of the romances.

Rating: Two interesting romances with four likable characters in a book I liked, but did not really find anything particularly special about.

Lessons from a Scarlet Lay

Lessons from a Scarlet Lady by Emma Wildes 420

This is actually two stories really in one although both of the stories are vastly interconnected as the two women are best friends and the two men involved are brothers. Brianna is already married to Colton Northfield, Duke of Rolthven, but she wants to ensure that he never strays from her so she enlists the help of Lady Rothburg. Rothburg is a notorious courtesan who published a manual that was so scandalous it was actually banned by Parliament. She uses some of the tricks that the Lady suggests in her book and it definitely does the trick as Colton begins to let down his renowned stuffiness. However she had not counted on Colton wondering exactly where his virginal young wife had come up with these ideas as he certainly had not shown her. When he discovers that Brianna is expecting he can't help but wonder if the child is his, but he is beginning to realize that it is not jealous that is eating him alive, it is the fear that he might lose her love. He needs to learn to trust and just accept that she loves him and does not want any other man but him.

Rebecca Marston is in her second season and she has received many marriage offers, but she has spurned all of her suitors because she is secretly in love with Robert Northfield, the youngest brother of the above mentioned Colton. Unfortunately he is a notorious rake who spends his life sleeping with all the married ladies and widows of the ton and he has never shown the slightest bit of interest in the very marriageable Rebecca. When the two of them are thrown together at a house party Brianna throws for Colton's birthday, Robert realizes he has definitely overlooked this beautiful and very musically talented young woman. But her father is dead set against the match as he has been misinformed about some very bad habits that Robert does not possess and he is still unsure if he really is ready to get married. With the help of Lady Rothburg, Rebecca wants to show Robert that she is the perfect woman for him and she can make him fall in love with her and keep him from straying from her forever.

I was worried that having two stories in the amount of space would really not be enough room to fully go through the development of the relationship and really be a romance. In a sense this was right as it really seemed as though Brianna and Colton's stories dealt with far more of the issues people who are really in a working relationship would deal with, such as worries about infidelity and losing a loved one, and the sex. On the other hand Rebecca and Robert moved more slowly and did seem to be the first half of a traditional romance novel. I almost feel like she could have taken their story and then gone on some more. I am also fairly certain that more time was spend on Brianna and Colton's story and I found that I enjoyed it much more than Rebecca and Robert's story. Partly because I love the idea of a woman seeking advice from a courtesan to seduce her own husband and the idea of an innocent pining after the biggest rake in the ton has been done to extremes in literally every novel. However, I did not have a difficulty time seeing why these two couples made such great couples as they interacted with their chosen significant other so well and I loved reading about the times they spent together.

The emotions in this story were very well written and the points of views were done very well as the reader got at least an adequate understanding of what was motivating each of the characters. And this book certainly ran the entire gamut of emotional turmoil to great happiness and it was very enjoyable to read about. As mentioned briefly above the sex rested very heavily on Brianna and Colton's story and what there was was great- as it should have been being inspired by a courtesan's writings! This whole book is based on a book written by a courtesan so I was really hoping we'd get some insight into what made this book so scandalous it had to be banned. Unfortunately the only sneak peaks given into the book were brief and really something that could have come out of an advice book for young ladies. References were made to it but I was especially frustrated when mention was made of something incredibly scandalous in Chapter 10 of the book, and yet I never figured out what it was!

Rating: Very enjoyable book that could have used a few more pages to flush out some of the more romantic elements of the relationships.