For eleven years, Gillian Rutherford has dreamed of escaping her family’s dark secret and living a normal life. Now, faced with an unwelcome marriage that will chain her to London and the secret slowly killing her, she’s desperate to save herself and the sister she adores. Salvation comes in the form of an American shipping tycoon, and all she must do is seduce him into marrying her. But … Gillian’s scheme hits a snag when she makes a bargain with a notorious rake Alexander Trevelle, Lord Lionhurst. He’ll help her win the hand of his American friend, if she’ll assist him with exacting revenge against her unwanted fiancé. But the price of the pact may just be their hearts.
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The mark of a good read is how many times I need to put the book down because I don’t want to see where the characters are taking me. This story is about family love and caring enough to sacrifice your own happiness for the love of another. Gillian and Alex are both special people and auntie isn’t bad either. You’ll love this story!
Enjoyed the characters and the banter between them. Somewhat predictable but enough twists to keep you interested.
Gillian believes that she can escape marriage to her horrible betrothed and keep the family secret if she can marry the American partner in Alex’s shipping company. Now all she needs to do is get him to pay more attention to her than to her sister. Will Alex help her with her quest, or is he discovering he might not want his partner to have her?
This is a well-written entertaining story with mystery, blackmail, secrets, and a couple of somewhat uncommon courtships. The characters include a spunky heroine, a somewhat confused hero, a nasty villain, and a “helpful” aunt. The story is fun to read. There are a few twists and turns and a fitting comeuppance for the villain(s).
Gillian Rutherford is desperate to get out of England. She is getting hateful mail threatening to expose her and her sister Whitney’s secret. The problem? Whitney isn’t aware she has a secret. That is why Gillian needs to get her out of England before she becomes aware of it. Her plan, seduce and marry Drake Sutherland. American captain and ship owner ( who is actually all for it, he wants a beautiful proper wife). Perfect plan, until she runs into Alexander Trevelle, Lord Lionhurst! Attractive, devilish and quite charming. Also Drake’s business partner. She and Alex share an attraction, yet Alex admits NEVER will he marry. So he agrees to help Gillian and works very hard to get her what she wants. Alex tries and so does Gillian but Gillian soon realizes she is in love with Alex and Alex is in love with Gilllian…Drake again, he just wants a beautiful wife…kind of feel sorry for the guy. The End right…wrong. True Julie fashion both Alex and Gillian must earn their HEA. Between blackmail, betrayal, murder, threats of all kind, Alex and Gillian overcome to get their HEA!
Captivating page-turner! Full of excitement!
Was a great twist to the plot. Loved the female character. Good read
The overall story is about denying oneself in the hopes of protecting loved ones. This story is actually very busy filled with secrets, misunderstandings, blame, shame, death, betrayal, blackmail and more. The H/h have their own dark secrets and are willing to do anything to protect the ones that they love. The hero, Lord Alex Trevelle, looked up to his older brother Robert and was unwilling to see what his brother was really all about. His brother, Robert, was gone and now Alex would inherit, he blamed himself for the family losing Robert. Alex decided that his penance for what happened to Robert would be that he would never fall in love, that he did not deserve to be happy. So, he became a renowned rake. Lady Gillian Rutherford, our heroine, also had a dark secret. She decided in order to keep the secret from coming out and harming the ones she loved, she need to marry and move her and her younger sister Whitney to America. She set her eyes on a shipping magnate Mr. Drake Sutherland. When Alex and Gillian were very young, they use to play together. Many years later they had become reacquainted at the ball of a mutual friend, Sally, the Duchess of Primwitty. Alex thought Gillian was different than the ladies of the ton. When he heard of her plans to marry his partner, Drake, he was appalled. Gillian needed his help in securing Drake. Eventually, Alex agreed only to get revenge on the man who was betrothed to Gillian, Baron Harrison Mallorian. Gillian wanted to marry Drake not Harrison. She loathed Harrison who was rumored to physically abuse any woman in his clutches. He was also rude, condescending and mean. He had no patience and would anger easily. Alex wanted to destroy Harrison for what he did to his family. Harrison was insecure and really wanted the ton’s approval. However, he was an opportunist and when he found out about the Rutherford family secret, he exploited it. He blackmailed Gillian’s father to contract Gillian to marry him. He thought if he married Gillian, it would improve his social standing and gain the attention, admiration and respect of the ton. Gillian did not know that her father was being blackmailed. She went ahead and planned with Alex to secure Drake’s proposal. Alex’s devious plans to take Harrison’s property and every penny he owned was working out nicely. Well, everything becomes quite complicated from here. Alex was attracted to Gillian. Gillian was attracted to Alex, but desperately wanted to marry Drake, Whitney was attracted to Drake and it is possible that Drake was attracted to both Gillian and Whitney. Let’s not forget Harrison who wanted to dominate Gillian and marry her. So many people so many possibilities, no many opportunities for things to go sideways and they did. Like I said earlier, this is a very busy book filled with so many characters and different situations that sometimes it would have been nice if it had been simpler. But I did enjoy the overall story and the ending. But… there was sort of a cliffhanger in regard to Whitney and I believe it will be addressed in the next book “Conspiring with a Rogue”. I look forward to reading it.
A woman needing to protect her sister from secrets about their mother’s death is just the start of the secrets. Alex agrees to help her but he has his own secrets. Alex turns out to be a much better man than he appears. Very romantic story and lots of twists in the story.
lady Gillian Rutherford and Lord (Alex) Lionhurst have a hard time admitting it to themselves how they feel about each other; and then deny it to others when it’s purely evident. Gillian enlists Alex’s help with her plan to marry an American, who just happens to be his partner. However, her feelings for Alex don’t follow in with her plan, and she denies it as long as she can. She wants him but cannot stay in England. She must get to America. Her plan is an unselfish one, made for the benefit of her sister, whom she wants to protect, and she’s willing to sacrifice her own happiness to achieve it. This is a tale full of love, mystery and of course some danger from a villain that every story must have. I enjoyed it very much as I’m sure others will.
I enjoyed this book but very typical of Romance novels
Loved it!
Wonderful reading.
Strong characters. Funny. Lots of action.
Easy read.
Highly recommended for a nice sunny day at the seaside, or a rainy day by the fireplace.
A delightful to read had me laughing and some hot steamy scenes.
FANTASTIC, Another great by Julie Johnstone! Julie has never let me down in her books and Bargaining With A Rake is no exception. This is her 1st book in A Whisper Of Scandal series. The storyline is amazing and very creative, you bond with the characters and the descriptions are so clear you can see them in your mind. Once you start reading this book, you won’t be able to put it down. There are dark secrets, blackmail, pure evil, a love of family, friendship, caring, death, revenge, betrothed, hate, judgement, loneliness, unexpected kindness, pride, scoundrels, villains, abuse, sisterly love, protection and so much more. I highly recommend this book, it is great from the 1st page to the last. This love story begins In London 1817 with Gillian Rutherford and Drake Sutherland an American or is it with Alexander Trevelle Lord Lionhurst? You will just have to read to find out.
***This book was gifted to me and I am voluntarily reviewing.
Well written historical romance. Enjoyed and recommended.
Good read, but with like with most Johnstone books there is always too many twists at the end and they are needless. I’d prefer a straightforward dialog and action between main characters, not everyone you can drag in.
It was a good book . Predictable..but easy to read.