Love with a Scandalous Lord

Another in Lorraine Heath series that I though was particularly touching. The heroine is charming, innocent, and funny. The hero is darkly troubled, a bit too serious, and far from innocent. The ending was a great one.

This time the reformed hooker is a guy and a good woman helps him regain respectability - altho he's a nobleman and she's an American! Funny, touching, and SEXY. read and have fun i did

In 1879, his brother the Earl dies so that Rhys Rhodes the "spare becomes the heir". With his father also dying, Rhys' half-brother Grayson accompanied by his American wife and five children arrive from Fortune, Texas to pay their respects. One of Grayson's brood, his stepdaughter Lydia Westland, especially looks forward to the trip as she has studied how to deport oneself as a lady and has written a "book" "Blunders in Behavior Corrected" extracted from letters that her cousin mailed her.Rhys and Lydia are immediately attracted to one another, but she is angry when his mother the duchess goes hysterical over her father staying at the estate as Grayson is living proof that her husband loved someone else. Lydia turns mortified when Rhys corrects her first blunder. As Rhys and Lydia become acquainted they fall in love but he believes that his scandalous past makes him undeserving of her (or anyone's for that matter) so she has her work cut out to persuade him otherwise.Switching the locale and moving forward almost fifteen years refreshes the Anglo-American historical romances that have delighted readers. Besides a delightful "second" generation story line, the return of the lead characters from A ROGUE IN TEXAS add a feel of seeing how old friends that have not been seen for a while have done. LOVE WITH A SCANDALOUS LORD is an intriguing tale as Rhys is an interesting lead protagonist with many relationship problems. Lydia provides a bit of comic relief with her obsession over aristocratic behavior. Lorraine Heath scores again with a fine Victorian-Texas romance.Harriet Klausner

Wow! What a fantastic love story! I read this book in one day, I literally could not put it down. Rhys is one of the most compelling characters I have encountered. He is handsome, passionate, sensual and strong, and at the same time vulnerable, tormented, lonely and in great need of love. What woman can resist a combination like that in a man? His desire to protect Lydia even at the cost of his own happiness made my heart melt, while Lydia's confidence in their love and its capacity to overcome any difficulty and forgive anything made me feel proud of her. She is a very believable heroine, with a very tender soul and a great capacity to love and understand. I could sympathize with her because for the most part she reacted like I would have done in her circumstances.I have enjoyed this book throughly, but my favorite scenes are when they are in the garden and he realizes that she is barefoot and her feet are cold and he rubs them so tenderly, and the scene when he plays the piano with such sensuality. I could almost "hear" the music in my head! Oh, and of course, at the ball, when instead of turning her back on him like the rest of the world was doing, she goes to him and takes his hand regardless of the consequences.A completely delightful love story and a well written book, were the author touches deep and delicate themes with great taste and masterful ability.

Lydia Westland is determined to make her trip to England, her 'season' a dream come true. When her step-father Grayson is called back from Texas to see his dying father, Lydia accompanies him, fantasies of ever-so-proper and ever-so-handsome English noblemen sweeping her off her feet. London is a long way from Fortune, Texas, but Lydia is accompanied by multiple ettiquette books and a heaping serving ot Texas confidence, but none of that seems quite enough when she meets her step-father's much younger half-brother, Rhys, Marquess of Blackhurst and soon-to-be Duke. Rhys can't ignore the instant attraction he feels toward this beautiful and energetic Texas woman, but neither can he deliver what she so clearly is looking for and so obviously deserves. She should have her season, her moment of glory. Any connection to him will eventually doom her. Even as he kisses her, he tries to hold her away. When her first ball in London results in disaster, Rhys resolves to a devil's bargain to bring her what Lydia needs and deserves--a bargain that will put her forever beyond his reach. She can have her season, her social success, but she can never have him. Author Lorraine Heath brings her emotionally rich characters and situations from Texas to England in LOVE WITH A SCANDALOUS LORD. Set in the 1880s, England is in the midst of its transformation from aristocracy to democracy, and the proprieties remain critical. A woman can still be ruined and a career in business, bastardy, or inappropriate sexual adventures can still destroy a man's standing in society. Lydia is a charming heroine, with appealing Texas spunk. Rhys is damaged and dangerous--with skills in lovemaking that would set any woman's heart on fire, and that, in fact, have sent too many women into his arms.