If any man ever took pride in being a rake, it would be Henry Mordane, Duke of Harrogate. Beholden to no one, desired by every lady he encounters, life couldn’t be better. Even getting caught half-naked in a lady’s bedroom sparks humor… until the ensuing wedding rouses memories and insecurities he’d rather not deal with. The logical answer is to carry on as though nothing has changed. He’ll do as … as he pleases and allow her to do the same. Perfect. Except when he begins to take a little too much pleasure in provoking his feisty wife…
Sharp-tongued Lady Anne Berkeley values her independence. Is it any wonder she becomes irate when that bumbling idiot of a Duke stumbles into her room? How dare her brother force her into marrying the man?! Her husband’s one saving grace is that he seems content to leave her in peace and not interfere with her comings and goings. That’s just fine by her. Until her heart begins to race at the smooth way he counters her verbal jabs…
This heated game of cat and mouse may be more dangerous than either of them are prepared for.
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Henry Duke of Harrowgate and the woman he married!
by sewsummore
When Anne and Henry were discovered alone in her bedroom there was nothing for it but a quick wedding between the two of them. Henry had come to visit Anne and her brother to explore the possibility of marriage between the two on them. Anne was not pleased but the marriage and her settlement was what was needed to keep his family estate flourishing. This was a romance that seemed doomed in the begining but soon flourished after a time. Henry was a stuborn man with a secret disability that had almost ruined his life. Anne was an intelligent young woman determined to use her talent for Arithmetic to help others including the stuborn man she married. A facinating look into the education of woman and the mistake men make!
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
Honestly, I was very ready to quit this book by the 20% mark. Neither of the two main characters were growing on me. I sadly was judging the heroine just about as badly as her brother had judged her. She was meeting with men secretly, throwing lavish parties, chasing about to London, spoiledly turning her nose up at her brother’s wife, and she was ill-tempered and argumentative, sniping at everyone, and only interested in getting her way. There was absolutely nothing in the story by that point to suggest her motives were anything other than selfish. And there was nothing in her character for me to like either. And the hero didn’t seem to think anything wrong with jumping into the bed of a sleeping woman and accosting her. Even if the woman is willing, that’s still an evil move. But I checked out some other reviews and they didn’t cite any of these things, so I kept on. And I’m glad I did. Anne’s desire for going to London was altruistic and the secret meetings were business. Henry actually wasn’t a rake (outside of that one scene). He gets fixed rather single-mindedly on Anne and was an over-protective sweetheart through the whole story (except on the couple of occasions when his temper got the better of him -which felt rather out of character and bi-polar the couple of times it did). Honestly, outside of that one moment designed to bring the two characters together, his rake status didn’t come into play at all (which I started to wonder why even call him that except to attempt to draw a reader audience that likes the bad boy rakes). While the character of Anne was supposed to be more progressive for the modern audience to identify with (she’s intelligent, and likes her freedom, and wants to make her own way in the world), the book seemed to have an argument against that with turning her into a damsel-in-distress on multiple occasions for the hero to rescue. The point where the book actually took off for me was the storm, which seemed really cliché, but it was still a fun scene (actually, a lot of the scenes felt cliché, but really the draw is the two main characters and watching them attempt to figure out their marriage).
What’s a Lady to do when she just wants to be independent… shop, go to balls, have fun… But with the return of her brother and his wife to take over the estate, they had cut her independence. Her spending had been cut in half, her socializing had been cut in half and her brother insisted she needed to wed. Well she would show him…
Unfortunately Anne’s show of defiance made it worse and her brother declared she would marry and find a suitable match or he would choose for her! In her defiance she decides to become as unlovable as she could so no man would want her. There, see if that didn’t show him!
Henry, Duke of Harrogate had been pushed by his mother to marry, so they go to visit Lady Anne as a potential match. But unfortunately, or maybe in this case fate stepped in, he ended up in her bedroom by mistake and compromised her when found.
I really enjoyed this story even though I wanted to box Anne’s ears at times! But there are a couple of twists and a secret that come out. Truly enjoyed this story! I read this through Booksprout
In the beginning I thought Anne was a selfish shrew ripping up at her brother and his wife and being rude to Henry, who was brought to her family’s estate as a potential suitor for her. Henry seemed like an empty rake, but during the story I realized that was a facade to try to hide what he saw as a deficiency. There is the mystery of who Anne is corresponding with and what she’s really doing in London and who why their are discrepancies in Henry’s ledgers. This historical romance had funny, sexy, romantic, and suspenseful moments.
Playing with Fire is the third book in the Brides of Cottenham series. I found it to be a great standalone book. I loved the characters and the book grabbed my attention and kept it. It was well written and perfectly paced. It was a fun Regency romance and I enjoyed reading it.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.