The bastard son of a nobleman, Finn Trewlove was a shameful secret raised by a stranger. As Finn came of age he had secrets, too–the clandestine nights spent with an earl’s daughter. But her promise of forever ended in betrayal. Driven by a past that haunts her, Lady Lavinia Kent seeks redemption in London’s underworld, engaged in a daring cause inspired by the young man to whom she gave her … gave her innocence, and who then proved himself a scoundrel by abandoning her.
When their paths cross again, they can’t deny the yearning and desire that still burns. As they discover the truth behind the deceptions that tore them apart, Finn and Lavinia must fight to reclaim what they’ve lost, no matter how dangerous—because love is worth the risk….
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I stayed up way too late finishing this book! I loved it!
Finn Trewlove and Lady Lavinia Kent met when she was only 15, Finn was immediately smitten and spent the next two years meeting her in secret and falling even deeper in love. When she turned 17 and was preparing for her come-out, their relationship changed and Finn learned his “Vivi” loved him too. It was an impossible dream, Vivi has been betrothed to the Duke of Thornley since she was a child, but Finn is her heart’s desire. Their relationship changes yet again and Vivi gives Finn more than just her heart. They declare their love and plan to runaway together. But they are betrayed and torn apart – each believing the other betrayed them.
Think this sounds like every other second-chance love story you have ever read? Think again!
Eight years later, Lavinia has jilted Thorn and has disappeared into the streets of Whitechapel. She has made it her mission to save children from baby farmers, she walked away from her society life and has no desire to go back, nor does she ever want to see Finn again. But when a meeting in an alley goes wrong, it is Finn who intercedes and helps her. Finn soon learns that his Vivi is not the sweet, sheltered, innocent miss he knew 8 years ago.
They quickly learn that they were betrayed and that neither was to blame. They both paid heavily for their doomed romance, but Finn doesn’t know the true price Vivi paid. He wants to spend time with her and see if they can recapture what they lost – but Vivi has secrets that she is sure will make a future together impossible.
She tries to keep him at arm’s length, but Finn still loves the girl she was and is falling for the woman she has become, despite his family still believing she is not for him, Finn’s Folly is what they call her and at one time he agreed, but now he is not so sure. He won’t walk away and tempts her with an opportunity to make her dream of opening a children’s home come true. Vivi never stopped loving Finn, but will need to confront the demons in her past, before she can even contemplate a future.
This is an absolutely brilliant book, it is well written, flows nicely (even with the insertion several flashbacks), yes, the trope has been done before, but never like this. Finn and Lavinia are amazing leads, what they each endured during their time apart is heart breaking, but seeing them support and defend one another, makes you believe that their young love was in fact true, soul-mate love. I laughed, I cried, I sighed – the book is filled with emotion, gut-wrenching choices, a hero who loves with every fiber of his being and a heroine who against all odds has survived and grown from a spoiled girl into an amazingly strong and generous woman. I loved this book – I thought that Ms. Heath couldn’t surpass the first book in the series and while I think I might still consider that my favorite, this book is definitely going on my To Read Again list. This is the third book in the series, but you can absolutely read it as a stand alone – if you do, you are missing out on two fantastic reads, but it can be done. I highly recommend this story and can’t wait for the next one!
*I am voluntarily leaving a review for an uncorrected eARC that was provided to my by Edelweiss and the publisher.*
I totally surrendered to this book from the first word on the first page and still remain its prisoner days after the last page. The Prologue alone will rip your heart from your chest and run it through a shredder. It was a touching, passionate and compassionate story and a great addition to the Sins For All Seasons series. It deals with some dark subject matter but handles it in such a way that you are left feeling good in the end. After all of that, you must be wondering why I didn’t give it five stars. The answer to that is that I would have given it five stars, but I really don’t like flashbacks as a way of telling the story and the first 45% of the book had a current time chapter, then a flashback chapter or two, then a current time, etc. I was very tempted to flip through and read all of the flashback chapters and then go back and read all of the ‘current time’ chapters, but I didn’t.
Each book in this outstanding series has a different hero and heroine, but, to me, the real hero for all of the books is Ettie Trewlove. No matter how many books you read over your lifetime, you’ll never find a more loving, compassionate and giving person than Ettie. She was widowed young and lost her own children to disease. In order to support herself, she took in the unwanted by-blows of rich aristocrats. They would drop them on her doorstep with a one-time payment of maybe £15. Most of the people who dropped off these children expected them to be allowed to die and they certainly never wanted to hear from them again. Ettie, however, was an exception. She took those children in and loved them, taught them, and made a family of them – all SIX of them! So! Hats off to Ettie, the true hero.
Finn Trewlove is basically the same age as his ‘siblings’, but to me, he seemed much younger, more impulsive, and more naïve. To me, that explains why Finn, at twenty-one, would be so instantly attracted to a fifteen-year-old girl. Finn is also the soft-hearted, loving one of the siblings. I absolutely LOVED Finn and my heart hurt for him as I gradually learned all of the things that had happened to him.
Lady Lavinia Kent’s parents are the parents from hell – literally. No matter how pacifist you might be, you’ll want to take her parents – especially her mother – and devise a horrible torture for them. You absolutely will not believe some of the things they do to their own daughter! That said, Lavinia is still spoiled, and totally convinced that she is always right. That continues to come through even toward the end of the book. I don’t think I really liked Lavinia as much as I felt compassionate and sorry for all that happened to her.
Lavinia has been promised to the Duke of Thornly (the hero in the last book) her entire life and while he is a nice man, she has no real interest in him. They spend very little time together and when they do, they don’t really get to know each other. He is eleven years her senior but is still not ready to marry. But, well, if she’s to marry him, she’d at least like a little attention from him – darn it! So, in a fit of pique, when she, her brother and Thornly were out riding she thought to get his attention by spurring her horse, Sophie, and ‘seemingly’ be on a runaway horse. Just right for rescue and attention. However, the mare didn’t bolt, she reared up and Lavinia hit the ground and broke her arm. Lavinia’s father was livid and ordered that the slaughterer be sent for immediately to put Sophie down.
Slaughterers were a real profession in Regency London and they really were a necessity. There were tens of thousands of horses in London and there had to be a way to deal with the aging, diseased, etc. animals. That was the job of the slaughterer – they picked up the animal, put it to death and then dealt with what needed to be one with the remains. Not a pretty job, but a necessary one.
Finn Trewlove was a slaughterer. He didn’t enjoy putting down the magnificent animals, but he did take pride in seeing that they were comfortable, calm and not panicked when it happened. He loved horses and dreamed of one day having a horse farm.
Finn was dispatched to Lavinia’s home to pick up Sophie. Lavinia was wailing and begged and begged and begged him not to destroy her beloved Sophie. She even struck Finn when he told her that he had no choice because if he didn’t his boss would lose his license. It really troubled Finn – Lavinia was a lovely girl and the horse was beautiful and not sick or aging. However, he had to take her.
Finn and Lavinia’s tale really begins when Finn (a former thief), sneaks into Lavinia’s room and then takes her to see Sophie. Yes, he couldn’t do it – he couldn’t destroy Sophie. Lavinia (Vivi) was delighted and they made plans for her to sneak out and he’d take her to see Sophie once per week.
Their tale is one filled with sweet romance, a love for the ages, tragedy, betrayal, separation, and reconnection. Once you start reading, you won’t want to put the book down.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an Advanced Reader Copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
This definitely felt like a return to the Lorraine Heath magic after the 2nd book. The first one is still my favorite in the series though.
I figured I would like this because it has a lot of my catnip. There are class differences (pretty standard for Heath) and a second chance romance. There are also a decent amount of secrets. Again, I think this is something Ms. Heath does a lot. They were pretty guessable secrets-she tends to keep them a mystery from the reader, too. Sometimes I find this is redundant but she doesn’t draw things out until the last 5 pages like a lot of other authors.
Ms. Heath blended the past and present fairly well. The past was given enough time to build a foundation for Finn and Lavinia’s romance, but didn’t overwhelm the present. You could feel their attraction, but it wasn’t as strong as it could’ve been for me.
Lavinia was more developed than Finn. A lot of his character seemed to be based on his relationship with her. I would’ve just preferred more of him. Finn seems like a really nice guy and I love a nice hero.
The ending did feel a bit rushed. Lavinia especially went on an emotional journey very fast. It felt forced because the book needed to wrap-up. Overall, I did really enjoy this though.
Finn Trewlove was taken in and raised with love by a former baby farmer, but he can never forget his status as the bastard son of a notorious earl. Despite not being of her world, as he grew up Finn spent many clandestine evenings with an earl’s daughter. He fell in love with her and they promised each other forever, but of course it all ended in betrayal and a stint in prison for Finn.
Lady Lavinia Kent seeks to atone for the darkness in her past by rescuing abandoned children in some of London’s worst neighborhoods. She’s inspired by the young man who once held her heart, even if he did break it by abandoning her.
When the two meet again, the attraction between them is still there, but so is a deep resentment. After they learn the truth about behind their separation eight years ago, Finn and Lavinia must both decide if trying to start again is worth the risk.
After how much I’ve enjoyed the other books in this series, I must say this one was a disappointment for me. I know she suffered terribly, but I just couldn’t bring myself to like Lavinia and every time she started to grow on me even a little, she’d do something else to turn me off all over again. I just kept thinking poor, lovestruck Finn deserved better. The “secret” here was drawn out way too long for me and was just needless. Lavinia kept things from Finn that he had every right to know. In fact, Lavinia spent most of the book coming up with reasons why she and Finn couldn’t be together, none of which even made any sense, all the while she just kept twisting the knife deeper and deeper into him and simultaneously lamenting how guilty she felt about what he’d suffered. After everything he went through, Finn deserved more from her and for most of the book Lavinia wasn’t even willing to meet him halfway. Lavinia kept harping about how she and Finn had changed too much to be together again, but there were multiple times she showed herself to be just as spoiled and selfish as she was in her life among the nobility, lashing out at Finn when he was also hurting. Beyond that, I found that I really disliked how this story was told in a series of flashbacks as it just gave me this awful sense of foreboding, knowing what terrible things were coming, that I just found depressing. The emotion here was intense, but I just wasn’t drawn into the story, although the writing and narration were good. I never felt the real connection between Finn and Lavinia, and what little I did glean came mostly from Finn. I do appreciate that Lavinia was ultimately trying to help children, but her single-minded focus meant that she failed to show that same devotion to Finn and that threw me off and made me not believe in their connection. This had good points, but I wanted more from it; even the ending felt a bit abrupt and I wanted some punishment for Lavinia’s terrible mother and more closure for Finn about his own parentage. I’m a fan of this series, but this story just didn’t quite do it for me.
I wrote a review for amazon I love both characters and is worth the money. It book #3 of series Sins of the seasons by Lorraine Heath. Now I going after #4 and I will be surprised that is the equal or better. Mrs Heath never fail me.
Loved the first few chapters where they are falling in love. The ending was a disappointment for me. My interpretation of the heroine at the end – I’m going to hoard children rather than try to create a home, find the children good homes or help the mothers keep their children.
One of Lorraine Heath’s very best!
So…Lorraine Heath has joined the ranks of Tessa Dare, Elizabeth Hoyt, Eloisa James, and Julia Quinn in my esteem – they are all the historical authors whose new releases I will preorder (blurb unread) and whose backlists I must gobble up. The Sins for All Seasons series is swiftly becoming one of my favorites; it manages to tackle serious issues (baby farming, abandonment, social issues, women’s equality, child endangerment, etc.) with care and sensitivity, yet they still serve heat and wit and heart. I love the Trewlove siblings and Finn is no exception, in fact, he may just be my favorite. The way he internalized his beginnings and allowed it to make him more thoughtful, introspective, and sensitive is beautiful. And I just love it when books have deeper connections to each other than just the fact that the main characters are siblings and I got that here. I really liked Vivi and how she matured throughout the story; she experienced one of the greatest character arcs that I’ve read in a while. The Scoundrel in Her Bed is also truly satisfying plot wise, as we get answers to questions I didn’t even think to consider. I truly can’t wait to continue this series, and as happy as I am to read Aiden’s story next, it’s Beast’s tale that I am truly longing for at this point. And maybe we’ll get a time jump so that we can get a book on Robin, who is honestly an honorary Trewlove. Though truthfully, I will read whatever the lady chooses to put out! 5 out of 5 wine glasses.
Love, loved, love it! Fun book.
This latest installment in Lorraine Heath’s Sins for All Seasons series was such a hit for me. It was full of angst and heartbreak and I could not help but root for this couple to reconcile, from the beginning of the book to the end.
This is a second chance at love story, centering on Finn Trewlove and Lady Lavinia Kent. Lavinia was the woman who was supposed to marry the hero of the last book, but ran away before they could tie the knot. She bailed because she saw Finn at his brother’s wedding, and it reminded her of how it felt to have a relationship based on love rather than duty.
The first half of this book was told in alternating timelines, between the present day and the past where Livinia and Finn first fell in love. Back then, Lavinia was just a teenager and Finn a 21-year-old horse slaughterer who she met when her father called him to dispose of her horse. She begged Finn to spare the animal, and from there an unlikely, very secret, friendship formed. One which, over the years, ended up becoming something more. Until something drove them apart.
There are so many secrets and lies between these two. But honestly, they were both victims of Lavinia’s powerful parents who put them both through hell rather than let them have a life together. It takes them a while to come to this truth, but after the midway point, they each understand where the other is coming from. There is just still so much sadness and heartbreak, it’s hard for them to get past it.
There’s more, obviously, but I don’t want to spoil everything. Suffice it to say I felt like the author put me through the wringer along with these characters. It was more than just a forced break up. Finn and Lavinia both suffered greatly over her parents’ choices, and it’s just so sad because they clearly loved each other then and even now.
I’ll admit, in one scene I cried.
Finn’s backstory of being a bastard sold to a baby farmer by his father plays prominently in his character development. But baby farming is also a big issue for Lavinia and it really becomes her cause. There’s a great juxtaposition of the innocent young lady she was in her past versus the woman she is today. And poor Finn, despite everything, the first chance he gets to allow himself to love her again, he jumps on it and grabs it with both hands.
There is one thread that was resolved differently than my heart wanted. I understood it, but I was sad too. Well, two threads–although the second one hurt me a little less than the first.
I enjoyed revisiting the Trewlove clan. Finn seemed a bit younger, maybe more innocent than his siblings. But he was a solid hero and this was a couple I really rooted hard for. Looking forward to the next installment in the series.
Rating: A
The Scoundrel in Her Bed by Lorraine Heath is book Three in the A Sin for All Seasons Series. This is the story of Lady Lavinia Kent and Finn Trewlove. I have read the previous books, but feel you can make this a standalone book if you wish to do so.
Lavinia and Finn had a early love affair at a very early age but then both thought the other betrayed them, setting in motion a separation. Finn who is a bastard raised felt joy with Lavinia but that was taken away when he thought she betrayed him. Lavinia too was left hurt but has taken to helping other with similar backgrounds of Finn. Now in the present day they are confronted with their betrayal only to learn that they had be tricked. Can these two find their past love for each other?
So loved reading their story.
I received an eARC at no cost from the author, and I am leaving a voluntary and honest review. Thank you.
I’m having a hard time rating this book.
I love Lorraine Heath, and the fact that she likes to talk about difficult issues in her books. But in this one, I think something was…maybe holding her back? I don’t know, I feel like it had something missing.
This is a lovers-reunited/second-chance lovers story. I have to admit, I didn’t feel very connected to the characters. I liked the young version, I did not, however, enjoy their transition. And, again, I think this has to do with the way the author dealt with their problems.
It’s hard to do a review without talking about something that does not show up in the synopsis, and therefore it is a spoiler, but that is the base of your concerns with the book.
Finn had a difficult life, and Lavinia was sheltered, as any nobility-born lady. But as they spend their together, she gets to know a different world. And then something happens that separates them. When they meet again, they are different people, but still harbour some of the same feelings they had years before.
I did not like Lavinia – I’m sorry, she went through a lot, I know, but I just couldn’t connect with her. Finn, on the other hand, was much easier to like and understand. I only liked Lavinia when she was young, and when she makes a right decision at the end of the book. I would, however, like to point out, she is doing her best to help those who need it, and I value that trait, no doubt.
I really liked Finn’s family, and I look forward to reading more their stories, even if this wasn’t my favourite book written by Lorraine Heath.
Lorraine Heath