Saturday, July 12, 2014

The Wickedest Lord Alive-Christina Brooke

The Wickedest Lord Alive
Christina Brooke
St. Martin's Paperbacks, Jul 1 2014, $7.99
ISBN: 9781250029362

Marquis Xavier Westruther enters the dark room offering his new wife escape as neither wanted this marriage.  Lady Alexandria says they should consummate and they do.  As he leaves, he vows to leave his marchioness alone as she deserves better than a rogue like him paying off his mother’s debt to her father by marrying her.  Not long afterward, confused by her husband’s actions especially disappearing on their wedding night, Lady Alexandra vanishes too.

Eight years later, Xavier arrives in Little Thurston where his wife pretends to be amnesiac Lizzie Allbright, who lives with the kind parson and helps those in need.  Infamous as the Notorious Bachelor, Xavier explains to Alexandria he needs an heir or his avarice family will take control of a fortune.  Alexandria prefers he leaves the village except when he kisses her.  As they fall in love, his mother arrives in this sleepy hollow.

The third Westruthers' Regency romance (see London's Last True Scoundrel and The Greatest Lover Ever) is an engaging historical.  Christina Brooke provides her fans with a wonderful second chance at love (though the first chance ended in premature rejection) starring two stubborn protagonists whose relationship never began.


Harriet Klausner

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