A lady on the brink of disaster
Quintessential debutante Lady Philippa Latham is determined to avoid scandal at all costs so that she may marry well. When her mother’s outrageous behavior threatens their family’s reputation, Philippa unwittingly follows her to a party no unmarried Society girl would risk attending. As if that wasn’t bad enough, Philippa is “rescued” from disaster by England’s … most notorious scoundrel, which sets them both on a path to public and personal ruin.
A scoundrel in need of seduction
Lord Ambrose Sevrin is infamous for ruining his brother’s fiancé and refusing to marry her. Content to remain among the fringe of the upper ten thousand, he is an intriguing enigma to London’s elite. Philippa thinks she’s met the true Ambrose—a gentleman who would fight to defend her and help her secure a husband before it’s too late. But he can’t be that husband, even for her. He won’t tolerate redemption—or love—for his crimes are far worse than anyone can imagine.
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Lady Philippa Latham follows her mother to confront her about her scandalous behavior – being escorted over London with a man not her husband. Unknowingly she walks into a masked ‘vice’ party and straight into Lord Ambrose, Viscount Sevrin. His scandal 5 years ago resulting in his brother’s death and his affair with his financee still circulates society. Shocked at seeing the proper Lady Philippa at such an event, Ambrose does his best to hide her identity and prevent her ruin. One escape leads to another issue and the night turns into a nightmare, but with Philippa reputation intact. Ambrose is not what she expected – he is kind, gentle and her savior. Philippa is being pressured by both parents to marry – their own marriage a disaster with her father reunited with his first love and her mother’s scandalous actions since she married a man who loves another. Ambrose lives on the fringe of society and deals with his guilt through prizefighting. His focus is on his fight club. He continues to punish himself for his brother’s death by denying himself any joy or happiness. He is attracted to Philippa but doesn’t feel worthy of her. Philippa considers him her hero and tries to push through his barriers. As their adventure continues with Ambrose protecting her identity and Philippa looking for a husband, they are both used by another for his professional fighting ability. In spite of his low self-esteem Ambrose is always there to help Philippa – and she is determined to help Ambrose see his worth. Poignant story of the mistakes made and how to deal with them. Guilt is really a selfish quality which cuts us off from people and wallow in self-pity. Forgiveness and leaving the past and pursuing happiness is the key to life’s greatest gift – Love!
A lady on the brink of disaster
Quintessential debutante Lady Philippa Latham is determined to avoid scandal at all costs so that she may marry well. When her mother’s outrageous behavior threatens their family’s reputation, Philippa unwittingly follows her to a party no unmarried Society girl would risk attending. As if that wasn’t bad enough, Philippa is “rescued” from disaster by England’s most notorious scoundrel, which sets them both on a path to public and personal ruin.
A scoundrel in need of seduction
Lord Ambrose Sevrin is infamous for ruining his brother’s fiancée and refusing to marry her. Content to remain among the fringe of the upper ten thousand, he is an intriguing enigma to London’s elite. Philippa thinks she’s met the true Ambrose—a gentleman who would fight to defend her and help her secure a husband before it’s too late. But he can’t be that husband, even for her. He won’t tolerate redemption—or love—for his crimes are far worse than anyone can imagine.’
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3.5 stars, rounded down to 3 stars.
To Seduce a Scoundrel is the third book in Darcy Burke’s Secrets and Scandals series.
This book has such a strong start and I was fully on board, I found both main characters to be really sweet and I was invested in them. I also loved that while trying to make their escape from the party unseen, it was like Murphy’s Law was seriously working against them, making sure that everything could go wrong to thwart their escape did. And Philippa actually acknowledges this, which made it more amusing for me and kind of broke down the sheer impracticality of it for me.
But unfortunately I found that the book kind of started to lose steam for me at about the halfway point. What had been a really promising connection between Philippa and Ambrose turned a bit sour. Philippa is just constanly chasing him, despite him pushing her away multiple times. And Ambrose is playing with her emotions by allowing these situations between them to progress to a certain point only bring everything screeching to a halt to stick to his self made oath.
I think largely the problem was that Ambrose had his head up his butt for a little to long and nearly reuined everything as a result. I know that this is one of Darcy Burke’s earliest series and so it is not of the calibre of writing that I am used to, but I will still be continuing with the series.
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I read this book with my Kindle Unlimited membership.
Excellent series by Darcy Burke. I am reading book 5 now
I loved this book, Lord Ambrose is well known to the ton society as the guy who had an affair with his brother’s fiancee, which lead to his brother being in a deadly accident. He is shunned by most and therefore avoids the ton. After the shame he uses fighting to ease his pain, and guilt. Not allowing himself to forget. Even after five years he is still punishing himself even thru the fiancee was just as quilt. He was a fighter, then opens a fight club.
Lady Philippa Latham has been raised in a normal household in the ton, the members are not close, as a lot of arranged marriages are. But she was raised to avoid scandal at all cost. So she is shocked by her mothers behavior.
She is staying out all night coming in late morning. Philippa follows her hoping to talk her into stopping whatever she is in too.
Unknown to her, her mother is going to the most scandalous party of the ton, where orgies are common.
Ambrose sees Philippa and knows she has no idea what kind of place she is in. He tries to save her before she is seen but as they are leaving they are set upon by foot pads. From now to the end every time this pair tries to do the right thing, it goes wrong.
It is not just her mother Philippa has to stop ruining the family name. Her father returns from his trip with his former lover and her son, and moves them into the house with her and her mother !
He does not keep her a secret but takes her into society and to balls with her son in tow!
As Ambrose and Philippa have one adventure after other. They work together, and learn more of each other they both feel the chemistry growing between. Philippa decides maybe being proper doesn’t matter when love can save a life, and give her all she has every wanted.
A must read for sure…. your going to have to read it to find out everything these two have to go thru….. enjoy