BACK COVER BLURB:

Elizabeth Ashburton lives behind a charming, happy façade in an effort to forget her former life. But when she is forced to confront the devil from her past, her friends in the dowager duchess’s widows club can not save her, and Elizabeth turns to the last man on earth willing to help her…

The extraordinarily powerful Rowland Manning has never pretended to be anything but a bastard, in every way imaginable. Through innate grit and determination, he built an astonishing empire and he’ll do anything and everything to save it. Yet, the one thing he secretly craves . . . something even he cannot name, can never be purchased with his kingdom of riches.

Each has something to win. Each has something to lose. Only love will determine if the price of redemption and sacrifice is too high.





LYNETTE'S TWO CENTS:

I tried for over a week, but I could not finish Secrets of a Scandalous Bride. Ms. Nash is obviously a talented writer, but Secrets of a Scandalous Bride hit all my hot buttons and I couldn't get past Chapter Three. Maybe it's because this is the fourth book in the series and there were things explained in previous books that I didn't catch on too. I don't know. But here are the reasons why I couldn't get past the third chapter.

Chapter One: The heroine is attending a wedding where the hero is escorting the bride down the aisle. The heroine is in hiding (in full view of polite society where anyone can find her) and she is found by someone she wants to avoid. She runs and hides and ends up in the hero's carriage. The hero arrives and then feels her up acting like she's his mistress so that the people after her are distracted. Nothing really wrong there you say. I didn't think so either. However, the heroine thanks the hero for his unorthodox help and asks to be dropped off somewhere. The hero tells her no. For some reason he's going to use her to get back to at the ton. His reasoning for this is very vague. He proceeds to ignore all her protests and kidnaps her while hurling insults at her the entire time. Not once does either of them attempt to act like human beings and sit down and have a conversation to discover why the men were after her.

Chapter Two: The heroine is locked in a nasty storeroom. Yet, despite being treated like a prisoner this is what she's thinking. Quote: "Oh, she should have been terrified, but for some absurd reason, she had not been." Umm, why not? What has he done, how has he treated you that made you come up with this thought. I personally didn't see one. Now she's made to go in the kitchen like she's a maid instead of a victim. Instead of trying to leave and go back to her friends, she goes into his nasty kitchen, cleans it, and cooks a fabulous meal for the hero and his employees. He repays her by shoving the food away and snapping at her. Apparently he believes he's too good to eat a decent meal and feed his employees decent food. So for cleaning his kitchen and cooking him a decent meal she's locked up in her bedroom for some unknown reason other than the hero wants her to be.

Chapter Three: Our heroine awakens in her bedroom and attempts to escape. Our hero is lurking in the corner. She had one of his men send a note to her friends, her friend replies and sends a note back. Our hero finds out what his man had done, takes the note, and refuses to give it to the heroine. He gives her more chores to punish her for trying to get in touch with her friends. Yet, although she's been treated like a slave, she feels strangely safe because at least he hasn't attempted to ravish her. This is where I stopped reading.

Secrets of a Scandalous Bride didn't work for me. With family demands, work, more books to read, and little time. I wasn't intrigued enough to keep turning the pages to see what happens. That was just me. I hope you have better luck.

Happy Reading!

WHERE PURCHASED:
Advanced Reading Copy courtesy of Beverly at Historical Romance Releases

RATING:
F