Jane Cavanagh possesses the most scandalous reputation in London. With an ample allowance from her father, she’s able to live a lifestyle of autonomy. She answers to no one regarding her choices in life. For entertainment, she engages in male companionship, enjoying multiple trysts without an ounce of guilt. After a few months with a man, she moves to the next, leaving scattered victims of broken … broken hearts strewn across the social landscape. Her motto is no love, no babies, and no marriage.
When someone from her past returns into her life, Jane is sent into a tizzy of emotions she would rather not face. Jane encounters Colonel Matthew Rutland, a decorated war hero and widower. If it wasn’t for him, she might have turned out to be a different woman altogether. After a few painful interactions, it becomes obvious they both have unresolved matters of the heart. Jane, however, isn’t keen on settling anything with the man who cruelly discarded her to pursue a military career.
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This is a sad case of a broken heart; To be so young and in love, to give yourself to a man only for him to leave you for the military. Lady Jane swore no man would ever play her again, so she embarked on leaving every man who shared her bed broken-hearted. So when Matthew Rutland re-entered her life, she decided to play her game with him. This is a story of a second chance at love. It is how the two play around each other denying what they feel and the deeper emotions at play underneath. This story is fun, but addresses the actions of why some people are the way they are.
Jane Cavanagh possesses the most scandalous reputation in London. With an ample allowance from her father, she’s able to live a lifestyle of autonomy.
After suffering a few painful interactions with a man from her past it becomes obvious they both have unfinished business that needs resolving.
This was my first time reading a book by this author.
I found this book to be engaging in the beginning but it bogged down. I wished for more background about the couple but it just never was explained to my satisfaction. The read and the story just didn’t seem to have the flow to it that I hoped for.
I gave it a rating of 4 of 5 stars. I was hoping in the beginning for a more complete story line but it just never happened.
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
This is my first book by this author, I enjoyed it. This is a historical romance story that I read in one sitting. I was pulled into the story right from the beginning. The characters are supportive of each other as well as strong. I enjoyed how engaging this is that kept me reading until the end. I highly recommend this book.
Jane once had her heart broken by Matthew. But he was off in the military. Now she did relationships on her terms. Until after almost a decade he waltzed back in her life. Can these two get over their past hurts and heartaches to have a future before it’s too late? Fun read
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
A well written story that kept my interest until the end. this is Lady Jane Cavanagh and Colonel Matthew Rutland, a decorated war hero and widower’s story. A story of a second chance and the consequences of the choices that where made. I enjoyed reading. I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
One Is The Loneliest Number
The First CutIs The Deepest.
Jane, despoiled at eighteen by Matthew Rutland, the first and only man she ever loved, has gone on over the last nine years to become a heartbreaker of the worst sort. There is a gaping hole where her heart used to be.
She’ll be alright without you, there’ll be someone else….She keeps telling herself..
She uses men like tissue paper, throwing them away when they begin to bore her, or become attached to her. With her own money, Jane has no need for a husband or protector.
Jane is out hunting again at the balls and galas, for a new titled gentleman to ease the loneliness and become a sexy XXX diversion for however long it lasts. Somehow she retains most of her reputation.
She sees her last lover at a ball, and walking up to talk to him, doesn’t realize he is with Matthew until it’s too late! Matthew is a war hero, a colonel on furlough, now that Napoleon is banished to Elba.
It seems both remember their parting years ago completely differently, Jane was devastated, never to be the same, and Matthew just wanted to go into the military. He never realized his taking of her innocence would affect her so deeply. THE MAGGOTY JERK!
ARC Received from Booksprout
This ebook was $3.49 on Amazon at the time of this review.
Opinions Expressed here are my own.
This is a unique and interesting book, with both sides of a long lost love affair airing their own side of how a chasm came between them. Both Jane and Matthew lost something, a part of their souls in the intervening years. Is there anyway to recover? Is there anyway to start again? Why put yourself through it?
What an emotional tale! It is sure to make you cry some and get angry, too. The book is definitely for ADULT readers only.
Jane Cavanagh watched in fascination as Viscount Berkshire actually cried tears in her presence! He actually thought his broken heart deserved better treatment. She had thought him strong, but obviously she was greatly mistaken. He began to beg, dropped to one knee to ask her to marry him, but her cold heart just didn’t care. She tried to stir up emotion but, as always, felt absolutely nothing but indifference. She hoped his shock at hearing of all her lovers would not cause him to die at her feet, as she had a social function to attend to in the next hour. She told him she was never sorry for anything she did, and she doubted she would be in the future. He was fun, but now she was bored and it was his time to leave her. With her unfeeling heart, any cruel words a man uttered bounced harmlessly off and fell at her feet, powerless to ever hurt her. It took her only a few seconds to forget about Neville as she walked away.
Jane joined the other ladies at her Aunt’s house as she listened for gossip on the next available man she might want. Jane’s relationships had all been pleasurable, she never understood the gnawing emptiness she felt in her soul. When the ladies finally left, Aunt Millicent asked Jane to remain. She wanted to let Jane know that Colonel Matthew Rutland, a wealthy and respected decorated war hero, and Jane’s first love, had been back for two months now! His wife had passed away the previous year. Matthew had seduced her at 18, then left for 9 years to fulfill his dream in the military. The pain of his abandonment still hurt.
Matthew returned home and found his good friend Neville visiting. The two talked about old times and how everyone in Neville’s family had been doing. When Matthew teased about a lady in his life, he was upset and confessed to his broken heart. He told Matthew how he had hoped to marry her, but she only wanted to play until she got bored. He would introduce Matthew to some other ladies that could entertain him until he found a woman to marry. The two of them attended the next ball together. Jane spotted Neville who was facing her, talking to a man whose back was to her. She quickly crossed the room, not hearing her Aunt’s warning not to do so! When Matthew turned around, she dropped her champagne glass. From the resulting terse conversation between Jane and Neville, Matthew realized she was the lady who had hurt his friend. As quickly as she could, Jane returned to the other side of the room where her Aunt tried to console her. What would she do now? Her heart was ripped out seeing Matthew again, even more handsome now. Can she avoid him for the rest of the Season? Or will he try to make contact? Are they sworn enemies, or is there still something left that might be nurtured?
I must say that this book offered a powerful emotional start! The reader will immediately see that Jane is not a nice human being at all. She has closed off all feeling and allowed her own self-indulgent pleasures to be the only thing she lets herself feel. Matthew has been through loss of a wife he loved and his stillborn son. Is there anything that could pull the two of them together again, or has their pain and loss been too devastating for both to try again?
Very real characters.
When you first start reading this one you will not like Jane she appears to be a cold-hearted and cruel woman who uses men then discards them. On the other hand, you will meet Matthew a war hero with a stellar reputation, but you will find that as you read that your opinions may change as these are two very flawed and or so human characters. I found as I read the characters touched my heart and I enjoyed reading it. Neville will turn out to be one of my favorite characters. I hope you enjoy this excellently written book as much as I did. I did receive a free copy of this book and voluntarily chose to review it.
The Sins of the Past
From chapter 8 The Talk of the Ton
…the burden of who she had become lay heavily upon his conscience. Her shameful reputation nearly embarrassed him to be with her in public.
I devoured Lady Jane in one setting. Second chance romance between the scandalous Lady Jane and Matthew the well respected war hero. In their first chance Matthew made a decision in his youth that Jane paid the price for. Not that she was innocent in the situation but while Matthew went on with his life hers went through a dramatic change. Free will aside I think had he handled things differently I doubt Jane would have made the choices she did. They do have their happy ending but I never felt Matthew ever truly realized what an impact his actions had on Jane. I wondered when he decided to pursue Jane did he really care for her or was it his male pride taking over. I must have missed it if he ever made mention of being in love with Jane in their youth or was he just doing what young men do in their youth knowing he wanted a military career. Or was there any great love for his wife. I do think he was trying to make things right, he wasn’t all bad. I will definitely read Lady Jane again.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
Characters Didn’t Seem Regency
I had a hard time buying many of the aspects of this book. It is supposed to be Regency, but none of the characters seem to act like what we expect from contemporarily written Regency romance books. The heroine, Lady Jane, is a woman unlike any other that I’ve read in a Regency Romance. She’s the female equivalent of a rake, taking men as lovers and disposing of them when she grows bored. We don’t understand why she is like this for a little while. Her family seems supportive of this or at least tolerant, which strikes me as odd. While she does have somewhat of a reputation, she is not shunned by the ton. When Man Zero, the one who first took her virtue and left her to pursue his military career, comes back to town, things change for Jane. How will she be affected when she sees him at every social function? What will their new relationship be, if any?
The hero, Matthew, wasn’t an easy hero to like, first because of his and Jane’s shared past as well as his initial indifference to the pain he had caused her. He has been able to go on with his life relatively unscathed, while he left behind wreckage in Jane’s that altered her perspective and life immeasurably. Yet, at an early point in the book, he states that he never really gave her a thought until seeing her again. Now, I wouldn’t require him to pine forever when he had a loving relationship with his wife. But I would at least liked him to have considered his actions over the years or more when he sees her again. Given their past, what happens between them in this book just seems implausible. I just couldn’t buy it. I also didn’t like that many characters in this book seem to have what I would consider to be more modern sensibilities, acting and talking more like contemporary people than like people from 200 years ago. All in all, I found this to be an oddly disconcerting book.