One Sinful Night

One Sinful Night by Kaitlin O'Riley 1224

Vivienne Montgomery and Aidan Kavanaugh were childhood best friends in Galway, Ireland until the summer Aidan came home from school to discover that Vivienne was all grown up. Friendship quickly blossomed into love and they agreed to be married by the end of the summer. Unfortunately Aidan's mother harbored greater aspirations for her son than marrying an Irish lass and one day Aidan he caught Vivienne and another man in a very compromising situation. He ran to England, inherited the Earldom of Whitlock, and spent the next ten years trying to forget Vivienne until a house party with the Duchess of Bingham brings them face to face. Vivienne was devastated when Aidan left her without giving her a chance to explain that she was taken unaware and was trying to get away from the man she was with. She was ostracized by many back in Ireland and after her grandmother died and her father died in a ship accident, she was all alone until her English cousins came to claim her.

She is not pleased to run into Aidan at the house party and he certainly doesn't try to make anything easier for her and challenges her at every opportunity. No matter how hard either of them try they cannot forget the good times when they were children, they cannot deny the attraction for each other, and they cannot suppress the feelings that are resurfacing. While trying to fight these feelings he is also trying to find evidence that Jackson Harlowe, who operates a competing shipping business, has been trying to ruin his business by burning down his warehouse. It does not help that Jackson is making overtures to Vivienne and all his possessive feelings come rushing to the fore. Vivienne and Aidan have difficulty keeping their hands off of each other and when they are discovered a wedding is imminent. But Vivienne is worried that Aidan will never be able to let his anger over what happened go and that his mother will never allow them to be happy. Aidan needs to get rid of the danger Harlowe poses and prove to Vivienne that they can overcome their past and move on together.

I enjoyed the last book of O'Riley's that I read so I decided to give this a try and I am very glad I did as this was a very enjoyable book. As usual, I love having the hero and heroine being in love years ago and being forced apart by a big misunderstanding only to find that their feelings resurface after years. The plot was handled perfectly in this novel with all of the great emotions and angst and jealousy and fears and possessiveness and rekindled love. The big misunderstanding was well done as it was big enough to warrant him running off and causing such a big rift and yet easily explainable enough to forgive both Vivienne and Aidan for allowing it come in between them. I loved Vivienne because she was so self assured, incredibly capable and she didn't allow what happened between her and Aidan to ruin her life. And I loved that she wanted to marry Aidan and instead of allowing her misgivings to ruin everything she came out and told him and prompted an honest discussion between them that paved the way for them to get back together and forgive each other. She was a very adult character.

Aidan was still a wonderful character and I thought he was perfect for Vivienne, however I did enjoy her more because he did harbor a lot of anger against her for a very long time. At times I felt like he was overly mean to her and there was one sex scene where I felt like he was using sex to manipulate and control her and, while it was incredibly hot, it kind of made me squeamish. But both of them handled things in a mature manner and it's always nice to read about characters who don't blow everything out of proportion. The sex between them was absolutely scorching and I wish there had been more of it throughout the book. I also wish that the two had spent more happy time together and hadn't relied quite so much on happy childhood memories ferment their relationship. I absolutely loved his mother as the lying, manipulative old bitch who was incredibly awful but was so much fun to read about. And the plot about her deceased father and the evil Harlowe Jackson was perfect as it was entertaining, mysterious, and important to the plot without overwhelming everything.

Rating: A very great book with two very adult characters who had some great emotional moments but not enough happy and carefree moments.

Secrets of a Duchess

Secrets of a Duchess by Kaitlin O'Riley 529

Caroline Armstrong is determined not to wed any of the men her grandmother is parading in front of her during her first London season. She decides she will pretend to be a boring and dull blue-stocking so that she can wait for the return of her sweetheart, Stephen Bennett. Stephen was from the South and had been a student of her father's before going back to the US to join in the Confederacy's fight. When she goes out on the balcony to escape an unlikable suitor, she runs in to Alexander Woodward, Duke of Woodborough. After quite an interesting conversation where they both reveal they don't want to get married and share a very tempting kiss. He comes calling on her the next day and they decide that the perfect solution to their problem is for the two of them to pretend to be courting so that everyone will cease matchmaking.

At first the agreement goes smoothly, although it does entail the two of them spending quite a lot of time together. It is not long before Alex realizes that he wants to marry Caroline in truth, but she is still wary of revealing the truth about her relationship with Stephen. However, Alex is willing to overlook past indiscretions because of his love for Caroline and, much to the delight of all of their family, the two become engaged for real. But when Stephen shows up as a surprise visitor at their wedding, and reveals another secret that Caroline had neglected to disclose, Alex is horrified, but it does not take long for him to realize that he needs Caroline in his life. It seems that the woman Alex had been unofficially engaged to, did not like being thrown over. Together the two of them have to stand by each other, and work to undue mistakes that have been made in the past so that they can move on with their lives together.

My biggest problem with the book was the fact that Caroline did not disclose all of her secrets to Alex from the relative beginning. Even when I thought all the secrets were out, it turns out there were more, even bigger ones, still hiding and it would have made it so much easier, and much more sense, for her to just tell him instead of first rejecting all his proposals, and then later, living in fear of him discovering her secrets. And when Stephen shows up her feelings are definitely torn between the two men. Although it makes sense for her to still have unresolved feelings, I still was not pleased that she was married to this great man, and couldn't get over her old love. I love Alex and the way he shows how much he loves Caroline. I loved the end, when they got together to really fight against all the problems that had been brought up against them. It really showed how great their relationship was. There was plenty of sex between them but it was just lukewarm.

Stephen was great, because he was not exactly evil- although he certainly was not a good character as he did cause so many problems- but his motives could at least be explained away with love. While it may not be pure, at least he wasn't completely malicious. However, Madeleine Maxwell was certainly malicious and I loved it! I don't know why but I just like female villains so much more and they're just more fun to read about. Alex's mother was another great character and just so awesomely chatter and romantic. I had a problem with the writing style for the first third of the book. It's hard to put my finger on precisely what the problem was but I definitely felt as though O'Riley was not really all that good at writing the first meeting scenes. Once they settled down and were really going on with the relationship, but in the beginning the descriptions, and especially the dialogue was awkward.

Rating: I did really enjoy this book and loved how strong their feelings for each other were, but Caroline was rather frustrating and weak at times.