Wicked, My Love
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4.1 • 13 Ratings
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- $8.99
Publisher Description
“Sensuous foreplay heats up the pages but never overtakes the captivating story or the charming, witty characters.”—Publishers Weekly
Handsome, silver-tongued Lord Randall doesn’t always get along with his bank partner, the financially brilliant Isabella St. Vincent. When their two-faced partner commits fraud and runs, Randall and Isabella pursue, finding wicked adventure and love along the way.
Posing as anarray of far-fetched characters and pursued by crooked police and a powerful railroad baron, the Randall and Isabella discover the only person they can trust with their lives—and their love—is one another.
Wicked Little Secrets Series:
Wicked Little Secrets (Book 1)
Wicked, My Love (Book 2)
How to Impress a Marquess (Book 3)
Praise for Wicked Little Secrets:
“With Wicked Little Secrets’ intriguing plot, quirky characters, witty escapades, and heartfelt dialogue, Ives has created a read that’s as thought-provoking as it is romantic.” —RT Book Reviews, 4 1/5 stars and nominee for Best First Historical Romance
“A fresh voice that reminded me of Julia Quinn’s characters.” —Eloisa JAMES, New York Times bestselling author
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Victorian England provides a perfect setting for the madcap adventures of an English businesswoman and her lifelong friend. Isabella St. Vincent, a champion of women's rights, helps run the bank formed by Lord Randall's family. Her position depends on bank shares she inherited from her father. When a bank partner invests in false stock, she and Lord Randall stand to lose everything. As they search for the vanished bank partner, who was also Isabella's only suitor, Randall suddenly sees that Isabella is much more than the annoying girl that he played childhood pranks on. Their quest puts Randall and Isabella in shockingly close proximity, and the few rules of their love/hate relationship begin to crumble. But Isabella believes that a romance between them would be doomed and doesn't want to jeopardize Randall's future in Parliament. Sensuous foreplay heats up the pages but never overtakes the captivating story or the charming, witty characters.
Customer Reviews
there wasn’t a way for me to wholly buy into or believe the relationship, mostly due to Isabella
The first I have read in this series, Susanna Ives has created a lovely fun story with a heroine with zero common sense and a hero who has tried for ages to best her intelligence. A clever read, that brings the statement “he doth protest too much’ under the bright lights and proves that dislike frequently appears when there is attraction.
Isabella is a bright woman: having published a book on business and smart investing, and is a proponent of woman’s rights. I liked the intelligence and determination that she showed in her intellectual efforts: in fact, Randall needs to use her acumen to sort out an issue. However: Isabella is completely and utterly confused by common social niceties, even conversational nuance is utterly missed. I understand that flirting may be out of her range, but the lack of humor that was often ‘funnied’ up by the addition of over the top slapstick-esque situations soon lost their charm, and became more of an over the top addition.
Contrasting with Isabella’s rather overly serious nature is Lord Randall. A politician strongly holding beliefs that are not in line with his aristocratic birth, he is a master charmer, with social sense and the ability to converse with anyone on nearly any issue is honed to a fine point. I loved that his political beliefs were more in line with Isabella’s than one would instantly expect, and those beliefs often led him into difficulties. His realization and admiration (if closely held) of the intelligence displayed by Isabella is both a boon and a trial for him. It confuses his ego to see her so quickly absorb and sort details, even as she can’t decipher a joke.
Attraction between the two was cleverly displayed and developed, and the changes in their relationship as the attraction grows is well paced. These two do complement one another, and fortunately, for Randall’s sake, Isabella is not afraid to speak up and correct him, a learning experience for sure.
What did drag for me is the secondary plot: Isabella’s inability to let go of old prejudices, the slapstick-feeling additions of ‘baby-waby’ and shrieking, even the somewhat muddled plotting of the book that Isabella authored and the attention from that. Those issues, combined with her stubborn blindness to the illogical clinging on to old issues often tossed up a roadblock into her relationship. While I thought they were a decent couple, and felt the story developed that aspect well, there wasn’t a way for me to wholly buy into or believe the relationship, mostly due to Isabella’s consistent refusal to let go and move on.
It was, however, a fun and quick read that kept me wondering what next, with an ending that fit the story nicely.
I received an eArc copy of the title from the publisher via NetGalley for purpose of honest review. I was not compensated for this review: all conclusions are my own responsibility.