Book Review: Seduction & Scandal

Author: Charlotte Featherstone
Title: Seduction & Scandal
Publisher: HQN
Publish Date: July 1, 2011
Buy: Amazon
Review Copy Provided By: Net Galley
Book Blurb: With the scandalous nature of her birth to live down, Isabella Fairmont dreams of a proper marriage—even if a passionless one. She saves her deepest desires for the novel she dares to pen, wherein a handsome lord with dark powers seduces her. But then her courtship with an appropriate suitor is threatened by the sudden attentions of the reclusive Earl of Black…whose pale blue eyes and brooding sensuality are exactly as she described in her book.

Isabella tries to resist the mysterious Earl of Black.

Yet as he pursues her, with inexplicable knowledge of her past and kisses that consume her, Isabella fears she will succumb.

If only the earl could tell Isabella the truth. With very real, and treacherous, thieves endangering her life, Black will need to protect Isabella from the very people she trusts the most….

Review: This book started out a little slow for me, but once the story really got going it was great. Charlotte Featherstone has created a set of characters that you'll enjoy getting to know over the course of three books.

The story within the story is what really makes this a fun read. Isabella wants to write women's fiction, and the story she's working on is really heating up the pages at least in her time period. It makes it more exciting that the story she is writing seems to be paralleling her life!

Lord Black is the kind of hero we all want to find in the pages of these dark/Gothic novels. I loved how the Brethren Guardians were tied in to the Templar's. I've always loved stories that revolve around relics. The mixture of mystery and romance was nicely done too, once the story took off.

The only problem I had with the story was how obvious the pairings would be in the books to come.  Lucy and Sussex were definitely destined to be together, and it is hard to believe there has to be a book devoted to them, when they really have feelings for each other in this one. The same can be said about Elizabeth and her marquis.

All this leaves for quite a bit of unfinished business at the end of the story, but it makes you want to read on to the next book, so Charlotte has definitely accomplished her goal. Plus the characters are really so interesting that you don't want them to leave your life too quickly.

Rating:  4 flowers