Lord Percival Bretagne is used to playing games. He survived being a spy for a decade using his wits alone. But that was just life and death, now he’s playing for the most important prize of all—love. He’ll Stop at Nothing . . . Ten years after his family gave him up for dead, British spy Lord Percival Bretagne is back home, but his mission is far from over. Playing the aristocrat in … aristocrat in London gambling dens and at country house parties is just a cover for Percy’s real quest. He’s hunting the man who stole everything from him—his family, his marriage, even his identity. And this time nothing, and no one, will stand in his way. She’ll Risk it All . . . But one night with Isabel Galante changes everything. She’s willing to gamble a woman’s most intimate prize in order to save her imprisoned father, but she didn’t expect a devilishly handsome opponent with a dangerously attractive wicked streak. Isabel would do anything for her family, including betraying Percy, but she has no idea that she’s stumbled into the middle of a decade-long quest for revenge. Who Will Win in the Game Called Love? Percy has been betrayed before, and now the man who destroyed his life is using Isabel to strike again. With the fate of the government and his new life in the balance, he’ll have to keep Isabel seductively, scandalously close. They begin a passionate game of truth and lies, deception and dalliance, uncovering the heart of who they really are and realizing that winning might mean losing what matters the most—each other.
more
I have been waiting and waiting for this book because I wanted to see Percy’s story and I wanted/hoped to see the villain finally get his due – and I got both. Well, I would have preferred a more dire outcome for the villain, but he did get more than a slap on the wrist. The story is well-written and I really liked the characters.
We met Lord Percival Bretagne in the first book of the series, Three Lessons in Seduction, and got to know more about him in the second book, Tempted by the Viscount. We learned that in his early years, he was very much a man of his time – he wanted a society type marriage where there were no emotional attachments and he could basically keep living his life as he had before marriage. Yet, we also learned what happened to him on the continent. We also met and got to know the villain of the series in those books as well – and the fact that he never, ever, got any punishment for the things he did really annoyed me.
Percy is now back in London and out of the spy business – and he’s bent on revenge against the man who took his family and his marriage from him. The man is sly, smart, manipulative and very, very well connected. So, how will Percy stop him? He’ll hit him where it hurts – in his purse. At least that is the plan until he learns that the villain is still active in more than just making money. What he is up to now will subvert and maybe even bring down the government of England.
Isabel Galante is one in a long line of pawns who have been blackmailed and used by Lord Bertrand Montfort in his pursuit of power and influence. Isabel isn’t even the first in her family to be used by him. She despises him, but she also lives in mortal fear of him and what he can and will do to her family. So, when he orders her into the gaming hell/brothel, Number 9, to seduce a peer, she goes – she has no other choice. Then things go terribly wrong… She targets the wrong man … What will Montfort do to her and her family now?
Percy grabs Isabel and escapes the brothel with her and a very young prostitute. He needs a place to keep her safe long enough that he can question her and find out all she knows about Montfort – and he’s sure she works for him and knows plenty.
Circumstances throw Percy and Isabel together and they find themselves very attracted to each other. Yet, neither can fully trust the other – there is just too much at stake. Can they find it within themselves to trust and work together to defeat Montfort?
While this book is part of a series, and we learned Percy’s backstory in earlier books, it can easily be read and enjoyed as a standalone.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an Advanced Reader Copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
To Win a Wicked Lord
Shadows and Silk Series #4
Sofie Darling
https://www.facebook.com/sofiedarlingauthor/
Release date 04/22/2020
Publisher Soul Mate Publishing
Blurb :
Lord Percival Bretagne is used to playing games. He survived being a spy for a decade using his wits alone. But that was just life and death, now he’s playing for the most important prize of all—love. He’ll Stop at Nothing . . .
Ten years after his family gave him up for dead, British spy Lord Percival Bretagne is back home, but his mission is far from over. Playing the aristocrat in London gambling dens and at country house parties is just a cover for Percy’s real quest. He’s hunting the man who stole everything from him—his family, his marriage, even his identity. And this time nothing, and no one, will stand in his way.
She’ll Risk it All . . .
But one night with Isabel Galante changes everything. She’s willing to gamble a woman’s most intimate prize in order to save her imprisoned father, but she didn’t expect a devilishly handsome opponent with a dangerously attractive wicked streak. Isabel would do anything for her family, including betraying Percy, but she has no idea that she’s stumbled into the middle of a decade-long quest for revenge.
Who Will Win in the Game Called Love?
Percy has been betrayed before, and now the man who destroyed his life is using Isabel to strike again. With the fate of the government and his new life in the balance, he’ll have to keep Isabel seductively, scandalously close. They begin a passionate game of truth and lies, deception and dalliance, uncovering the heart of who they really are and realizing that winning might mean losing what matters the most—each other.
My review :
Will reaching their own hidden agenda be the termination of the other’s and the end of their relationship…
I confess while I am not a big fan of revenge story, I even more dislike those about people used as pawn.
This is my introduction read to Mrs Sofie Darling’s work, and while the plot tropes were not my favorites, she offers here not the story I expected.
Percival, what ever reckless or selfish he was in his youth or how fickly he once had been, he got his share of pain and wounds.
Sure, he could have chosen a different path when he came back to his identity when he recovered from his amnesia, but his life had already been altered for ever.
As I haven’t read the previous books, I do not know the story from his first wife’s side, still, I confess I am not inclined to like a woman ready to have her daughter labeled a bastard, what ever her marriage was.
So even if he was not the best of the husband, he was stolen from his fatherly rights.
His need for revenge is legitimate, I just didn’t really understood how he would accomplish it.
And while he is wandering about the right path, he can’t have another soul hurt by his nemesis even if he knows he brings a Troy horse in his household.
Isabel is very naive if she thinks by playing the game of her blackmailer she will be able to save her family. Those evils find always a way to only take, never give back.
Still she is ready to sell herself to free her father, when her own sister already has paid a heavy price for the same “debt”.
But for her family, she would do anything.
It was interesting to see them settle and get to know one another in a very unusual way, and the additional side characters were intriguing and fun adding.
And while it took them long to finally share their secrets and trust one another, when they decide to have faith, it is done fully.
4,5 stars for this tale of deciding what is worth it.
I was granted an advance copy by the author, and here is my true and unbiased opinion.
https://www.facebook.com/429830134272830/posts/599102040678971/?d=n
Now this….this is Sofie Darling at her best! I absolutely LOVED Percy and Isabel’s story, so well written, full of emotion and passion, danger and betrayal, with a hero that is swoon worthy, has physical and emotional scars and a heroine that will do anything to save her family. Put all of that together and you have one amazing story.
Lord Percival Bretagne is a man with one thing in mind….vengeance against the man who destroyed his life. Isabel Galante is being forced into debauchery by that same villain if she wants her father released from prison. When Percy and Isabel meet, each is playing a part and although they feel a strong attraction to each other, trust is not easy to come by. Soon their lives are entangled and danger abounds, not to mention the lies and deceptions that could ruin both their families.
I was given an ARC of this book and am voluntarily leaving an honest review.
It takes having his life stolen from him, for Lord Percival Bretagne to appreciate the true value of everything he has lost. The reckless rake turns his life around and after serving King and country, goes after the person responsible for the pain he has experienced. Before long, he comes to realise that he is in a game with much more at stake than his own vengeance. Others have also been damaged almost beyond redemption and their fight becomes Percy’s as well. I have a horror of manipulation and therefore found this novel painful to read as so many people were used as pawns to further one man’s ambition. This Regency suspenseful romance is generally well written, with strong characters and a good plot. It is also a standalone and comes to a good conclusion where justice is served. I received a copy of this book as a gift and this is my honest and voluntary review.
Lord Percy was the son of a Duke from a influential family. He had went
off to war and came back years later a different man. He had many things
from his past that haunted him.
Isabel was a women from Spain. She came with her sister Eva. They were
Dressmakers.They had a secret past as well.
The story begins when Percy and Isabel meet. There is and instant kind of undying
passion , but neither ones to admit there feelings.
To me the book started a little slow to really get into it, but about a third through
I could not put it down to see what happened.
I really enjoyed the story, the characters, the intrigue the love and passion.