Sinful Suitors #2
Sabrina Jeffries
Historical Romance
Pub date: March 22, 2016 (ARC review)
H/h - Edwin Barlow, the Earl of Blakeborough/Lady Clarissa Lindsey
Setting: London, 1830.
Read in March, 2016
My rating:
[spoiler alert]
The latest in Sabrina Jeffries’ The Sinful Suitors series, The Study in Seduction, was much better than the first installment. It was classic Sabrina Jeffries, fun and flirty; an easy read without any unnecessary drama even if the storyline was a bit on the predictable side.
I wasn’t surprised to find that The Sinful Suitors is connected to The Duke’s Men. Most of SJ’s series are interlinked thru characters; secondary characters of one series having their own books in a new one. I’d recommend you read both Hellions of the Hallstead Hall and The Duke’s Men series, though The Sinful Suitors doesn’t connect with the former directly at all. There maybe the mention of a character of her older series here and there, but you’d recognize them only if you’ve read the series. It won’t be hindering your enjoyment.
Book 1 was titled The Art of Sinning, the story of a small character in The Duke’s Men series, an American artist named Jeremy Keane. He was the cousin of one of the central characters there. I never thought him important enough to have his own book so was quite surprised to find that SJ is writing his book. The heroine, Yvette, was completely new. Keane was running from a sad secret of his past eschewing his own responsibilities back in America, and his artistic whimsies gave him the perfect escape route to do so. Explore the world to be precise. He travels extensively for the sake of his vocation, yet their vast family run empire is now managed by his elder sister Amanda. When Keane arrived in England, he was set to have a title from one of his English relative as the next living male heir. However, due to some twists and turns and Keane’s own disinclination to take on added responsibilities makes him decline this in the end.
He
meets Yvette through a mutual acquaintance, Yvette’s own brother, Edwin.
They were thinking of opening this gentlemen’s club, whose purpose is
to help protect the members’ female relatives from the lechers and
fortune hunters. However, while planning the club with Edwin and Warren,
Edwin’s childhood friend, Jeremy meets Yvette, tall and beautiful and
very much a spinster, who takes his breath away on spot. It was
attraction at first sight for both. Jeremy even takes up on a portrait
job for Yvette in hopes to... well, to acquaint himself better with her.
Yet, he wasn’t ready to promise anything more. Though Yvette wanted
‘more’ quite easily (all her determination about being an independent
woman going out the window), Jeremy was a tough nut to crack. He’d
promised long ago that he isn’t going to marry again, but the temptation
that she posed was becoming difficult to ignore. The whole push and
pull and the melodrama of it didn’t hold my attentions for long. There
was nothing going on but Yvette and Jeremy’s “yay” and “nay” about their
supposed relationship. It got old too soon.
In book 1, we meet the h of The Study of Seduction,
Clarissa, who is Yvette’s close friend. She was also a completely new
character. But Edwin wasn’t. Much like Jeremy, he was also a minor
character of The Duke’s Men, having been engaged to one of the heroines
for a short period of time. Poor guy was having a tough time getting a
bride, and a jilt from Jane (above mentioned heroine of book 4 of said
series) wasn’t helping his cause. His family was already plagued by this
huge scandal thanks to his ne’ee-do-well younger brother Samuel (the
whole story can be read in the same book where Edwin was introduced).
Yet he was nothing like Samuel, not even close.
Being the eldest
and the Earl, Edwin has been the most serious of the siblings. Most
brilliant and studious too. Edwin is very interested in automatons. He
studies them, and makes his own versions of various things. Everybody
thinks Edwin is starchy, quite prudish... in other words, too uptight.
Certainly, the jolly and flirty Clarissa thought the same thing about
her childhood crush. Oops but yes, she has had a crush on him for a long
time. But since Edwin never showed any interest in her, she had never
let her own interest show either.
In the meantime, we’re given a
glance of Clarissa’s life. She was born in the peerage and at 18, was
hoping for a match of her own. However, something
irrevocable had happened to her. After that, things fell apart. Her
brother got into a duel and had to flee abroad to save himself from the
noose. Clarissa, though beautiful and vivacious, a social butterfly, is
not interested in marriage anymore. She doesn’t even consider it a
remote possibility. However, after Yvette’s marriage, she’s gotten a bit
lonely. Yvette’s happiness, and the love she shares with Jeremy, does
make Clarissa wistful. Would she ever know something like that? It’s not
like she doesn’t have suitors but because of that “secret” she doesn’t
consider marriage an option anymore. Besides, there was that very
inconvenient crush she had on Edwin which hasn’t subsided even though
she’d grown up. She still finds him attractive, even if uptight. She
likes ruffling his feathers for the fun of it but sometimes she does
wish things were different for her, and for them.
Clarissa’s wish
comes true all of a sudden when she’s forced to hide away from a French
Count named Durand, who is also a diplomat of the French embassy. Count
Durand has been pursuing Clarissa for months now, without any
intentions of giving up it seems. At first, Clarissa found him
appealing, but one day, when he tried to force a kiss on her, his
manhandling put her off. There’s, or course, more to it which is
revealed later. Clarissa now wants nothing to do with the guy, yet he
doesn’t seem to care one whit! When the Season is full on however
Clarissa can’t just hide away. She loves attending all the balls and
parties and so, she’s now in London with her mama to enjoy it.
Generally, they stay at Warren’s townhouse, under his protection. He’s
quite close to his aunt and cousin, and the affection is mutual. But in
the meantime, a letter has arrived from Niall that sounded urgent. He
requested for Warren’s presence ASAP, so the plans changed at the last
moment. Warren decides while he’s away, it’d be best to give his one
very close and trusted friend the responsibility of providing protection
for Clarissa and her mother; Edwin.
Clarissa isn’t happy about
this arrangement at first. She wants to be the independent woman and
look after herself. It’s all good, but she knows that if the count plans
to kidnap her and force her to a marriage, she won’t be able to save
herself while she’s alone. And though, initially, she thinks stuffy
Edwin will ruin her fun, soon she finds herself craving his company even
more. Edwin maybe reserved but he’s nothing even close to a prude. It
was quite the revelation! Edwin, on the other hand, didn’t want to take
up on this but he was also very concerned about Clarissa’s safety. He
has been attracted to her always, but he thought nothing good could come
from having an association with his sister’s friend. He also thought
that being close to Clarissa may prove to be problematic to his
equilibrium. Oh well, he was correct on that regard. :P But no matter,
he can’t imagine any harm coming to her, so he comes prepared to do
whatever it takes… only to find that his time is being spent most
pleasurably in Clarissa’s company. She soon proves to be a breath of
fresh air in his tightly scheduled life and this close contact gave them
the perfect opportunity to finally get to each-other
better.
When Durand starts coming on too strong, going as far as
to even blackmailing Edwin about revealing a family secret unless he
leaves Clarissa’s side, he and Clarissa must come together to find a
solution to this problem. Nothing seems to be working but to claim that
they’re engaged. That way at the least the Durand won’t have any claim
on her. But will this prove to be a solution or a disaster? While Edwin
can’t have another jilt on his head as it’ll only lower his possibility
of finding a suitable bride in future, Clarissa has other things to
worry about. That infernal secret burden she’s been carrying for such a
long time, which has changed the course of her life and how she views
intimacy with a man. Could she take a chance and confide in Edwin? How
would he react to this? Edwin was more than adamant that they marry not
knowing the cause for Clarissa’s reluctance... so, after they’re finally
married, Clarissa keeps thinking if she can rely on him to help her out
of this nightmare so that they can have a real marriage and, if God
willing, children someday. This causes slight rift because Edwin
misinterprets Clarissa’s reluctance. Thankfully, the author doesn’t drag
it along for too long.
TBH, The Study of Seduction was a
fairly good, uncomplicated story. I enjoyed it though thought Clarissa
got over her “problem” with men fairly easily, too easily. But then, I
think Edwin was able to help her find her center and make her believe
that that it wasn’t her fault. Not at all. They always had hots for
each-other, only needed the right sort of push towards their happiness.
The next installment, as I can see, is of Warren’s titled The Danger of Desire.
When this ends, he has just returned from Portugal with Niall in toe.
They were able to get his sentence pardoned somehow and Niall was once
again looking forward to his life here with his family. We still don’t
know what happened there and how this connects to Clarissa’s “incident”
but I’m sure we will in Warren’s story. 3.5 stars but rounding up on 4.
PS:
I didn’t know Jeremy’s sister, Amanda, has already had her story in an
anthology? I gotta check that out ASAP! I need to know who she was
paired with cause I’ve been very curious ever since I learned it’s not
gonna be Edwin. Meanwhile you go and read The Study of Seduction. I can
tell you that short story has no ties to this one. Amanda wasn’t even
mentioned here once.
I
was auto-approved for this ARC from Pocket Books via
edelweiss which didn’t influence my review and rating
in any way. 
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