Scottie Barrett
Erotic Historical Romance
Published in 2016
H/h - Major Nicholas Draxford/Angeline Kent
Setting: Regency.
Read in November, 2016.
My rating:
[spoiler alert]
3.5 stars... another good one from Scottie Barrett. I liked it quite a bit. ;)
Angel's Guardian
had one of my favorite tropes; romance between a guardian and his ward. I
don't mind at all, especially if the guardian is as hot as Major
Nicholas Draxford. :D
When the story opened, it took me a while
getting into it. There were quite a few characters and a lot going on
altogether. It seemed Angeline, or Angel, our h just arrived in her
guardian's estate on occasion of his long awaited arrival. The house was
full of guests and she didn't wanna be there but she had to. Only she
wished she could stop thinking about Nicholas Draxford, the handsome
soldier who had stolen her heart even at that tender age when she'd last
seen him.
One Mr. Stanbury, drunk as a skunk, pours bucketload
on her daydreams, trying to grab her when she was returning from a walk
from a rainy afternoon. Angeline though, as sassy as she was, puts him
in his place but putting a foot down, literally, on his foot. ;) His
proprietary behavior didn't sit well with me but apparently, he's all
but set to offer for her, a fact Angel despised. But in her mind, her
guardian has abandoned her to the mercy of these people. After all, it's
been 9 long years since she'd seen him. Now she must marry and get
herself off his hand...or so the Stanburys and the people he'd hired to
look after her has told her. Angel would rather remain single forever
than marry Hugh Stanbury, but who is listening to her? It seemed like no
one. :/
Angeline was soon to have the surprise of her life!
Trying to hide from Stanbury paws, she runs to an abandoned cottage
somewhere in the estate. Upon arrival, to forget Stanbury, Angel felt
like...um, take off the edge by, um........ well, she was doing what she
did when she thought of Nicholas too much. :P Only she didn't know he
was waiting in the dark, not specifically for her but he was pleased
nonetheless to find a beautiful young woman not only pleasuring herself,
but calling out his name too. He was watching.
Ooh who is
that?! Nicholas raked his brain but couldn't remember meeting this
alluring creature before. Flaxen hair, pale skin, curvy body among many
of her charms. He just took shelter in here from the pouring rain, but
this seemingly boring incident was turning out to be quite a pleasant
surprise! When he comes out of the dark and introduces himself.......
the girl squeaks and...... well, she was embarrassed. :|
Okay,
Angel was embarrassed to have been caught by Nicholas but felt not an
ounce of guilt. After all, he's the one who had dominated all of her
feverish dreams. Now Nicholas has returned, taller than ever, bigger
than over. He has gotten even more handsome and Angel can't even
breathe. The only thing that brings her down to the earth was the fact
that he hasn't seem to recognize her. At all. >.< What a bummer!!
When
they finally return home, things start happening. Nicholas finds that
abandoning Angel has wrought some incidents he would've liked to avoid.
One was, finding his somewhat friend Hugh Stanbury as the prospective
husband for Angel. More than eager actually. Nicholas knew Hugh for what
he was-- a completely debauched rake, now a drunkard to boots. You can
only imagine the husband he'd make Angel since he'd never be satisfied
with one woman. But what surprises Nicholas the most was the fact that
it wasn't the dowry he set for Angel, Hugh seems genuinely interested
her! And that was one occurrence Nicholas would like to avoid at all
cost. All he knew that any man, who is a man, would
want his ward in their bed. Him included.
Soon Nicholas realized
that not only Stanbury has made himself the future groom, he'd also, it
seemed, taken over her grooming (no pun intended). His own cousin, a
prim and proper creature (hence complete opposite of Hugh), Miss
Stanbury, is now training Angel to be a proper lady for her to be
launched in the society. She herself is hoping to marry Nicholas (they
were once engaged if I remember correctly) upon his return, a fact that
Angel couldn't stomach. At first, Nicholas gives them free reign, well
at least to Miss Stanbury which soon proves to be a disaster. Angel
hated the lessons but she was told this is what Nicholas wanted, so
she'd go along. He'd call her "brat" and try everything to put a distant
between them. She'd be hurt, then hurt him back in return. Nicholas
wanted her bad and knew it was wrong, even when her marrying another guy
didn't sit well with him. Angel just wanted him but had no idea how to
fit this inside his thick skull. They weren't related by blood as far as
I remember. There was nothing that should stop them, but he was
determined to keep distance because...... well, the fact remained. He
was her guardian.
So it went, melodrama one after another, from
both, on and off. At times it seemed like 2 children bickering, then
stomping off in anger. Nicholas could now see abandoning her for so long
has been a mistake. It wasn't even the fact that she was a bit of a
tomboy and liked roaming the estate on her own, sometimes not even
caring for her own safety. That she had no training in ladylike
behavior. Those were the things Nicholas actually liked despite
everything. He didn't care one whit about the scandal marring her
reputation, which was not even her fault but her late promiscuous
mother's. But she needed to snag a husband, preferably one way better
than Hugh, if this insane attraction was to cease. It didn't help at all
knowing that the attraction wasn't one sided. Angel liked teasing
Nicholas, telling him the craziest of things that a virgin shouldn't
know. Things that'd set his imagination on fire. But it wasn't right! He
was her guardian!! They shouldn't be thinking about those things.
Pah, if only...!
I
was a bit exasperated because I wanted them to be together ASAP but
there was always something that came up and put a barrier. There were
teasing here and there, of them together... of Nicholas giving Angel a
taste of how he was, what he liked despite all that he warned himself
against. But for all that hot fondling, there wasn't enough sex scenes
between them. :( And that disappointed me a lot.
I found Nicholas
extremely hot. A bit hot-tempered, crazy about Angel. He never thought
of another woman after seeing her. It felt to me that he saw the
potential but cleared his head off that notion because she was so young.
Which she wasn't any longer.... Nicholas was also extremely possessive,
quite jealous and super protective of Angel. It took him some times to
come to terms with his wants and desires but when he did, there was no
stopping him. As for Angel, there was only one man. And I loved it! It
was just the chemistry between them that you know these two must be
together. She could be childish at times, quite impulsive but those were
understandable. I liked her too.
There were some secondary
characters I liked, who were introduced throughout the story. One has to
be Hugh's younger brother, a war veteran, Benjamin. Poor guy had a
really bad injury that made a mess out of half of his face. :( He was in
love with a girl named Olivia and was engaged to be married but she
promptly put a distance between them after seeing him with his injury.
It totally broke my heart as the poor guy was quite heartbroken and
yearning. His own brother, the callous POS, was no help and would always
make derogatory remarks about him, calling Benjamin weak etc. Now,
Benjamin and Olivia had a weird thing going on. She still loved him but I
think it was really difficult for her to come to terms with what has
happened to him. I could see why this would be a shocker for her.
Benjamin was quite the good-looking guy before going off to war and
now............ *sigh* But worry not, there is HEA for them too.
The
last bit of surprise came from Hugh himself and the person he finally
decides to elope with. Can you guess? :P Well, I will not reveal it but
it wasn't Angel for sure. By then he knew not to compete with Nicholas
for her hand. LOL I only wish those two had a book so I knew how things
are going between them. I'm certain it would've been entertaining. ;)
HEA
comes too late for our own Angel and Nicholas... they were still unsure
of each-other's regards until they finally marry. Those two were nuts,
seriously! I'm sure their relationship will always be that way. Never
boring. They'd bicker, then made up with hot sex. Heeh. I only wish
there were more sex scenes, just to give us a taste of the promises
Nicholas made to Angeline. The things he imagined of doing to her.
*sigh* Not enough, not enough!
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