Society’s most exclusive invitation…
Welcome to the Phoenix Club, where London’s most audacious, disreputable, and intriguing ladies and gentlemen find scandal, redemption, and second chances.
If Bennet St. James, the Viscount Glastonbury, doesn’t find a bride with a sizeable dowry, he’ll be in the poorhouse along with his interminable number of female relatives—all of whom he loves but are a drain on the negative fortune his father left when he died of a broken pocketbook. Desperate, he hatches a scheme to snare an heiress only to be foiled by a most vexing and alluring—and unfortunately equally destitute—paid companion.
Lady’s companion Prudence Lancaster is single-minded about finding her mother and filling in the missing pieces of her life. But a villainous viscount interrupts her plans, and his surprising charm and understanding tempts her in the most indecent ways. Soon, she’s dreaming of the future instead of wallowing in the past.
But when Bennet shares a dark secret, her hopes are dashed. For he won’t break the promise he made to his family, even if it means losing the greatest love he’s ever known.
Review:
If you’ve read the book before this in the series ( Intolerable , Cassandra and Rurak’s story) then you probably remember the mystery of what happened to Prudence? Fortunately, Indecent doesn’t make us wait too long to find out!
Prudence and Bennet have what could possibly be argued as one of the rockiest of starts–no one seeing how they begin would possibly think that Ms Burke could manage to get these two crazy kids to an HEA, but she does! (Only having one bed at an inn for several days of torrential rain definitely helps… ;)) Ben isn’t as dastardly as he first appears, and Pru isn’t as immune to love as she’d always believed. I really enjoyed watching them fall for each other, even as I wanted to smack Ben upside the head for all of the secrets he kept from her way longer than he should have. Lucky for him, Prudence is way more forgiving than I probably would have been, and Ben’s relatives helped him to gain some much-needed perspective, making their HEA possible.
The one thing I would have liked to see (and maybe the finished product will have it? The ARC didn’t) is an author note about the affliction(s) that Ben’s family suffered from. A little more information about it would have been nice–treatments then vs now, etc. It was such a motivating factor for him, and it feels like it’s still a bit of an open question at the end. Still, I really enjoyed their story, despite this lack.
And there’s so many hints about the next book ( Impossible ) here–a take on the Beauty and the Beast story! Don’t mind me, I’ll just be sitting here, waiting patiently for it…sort of… 😉
Rating; 4 stars / A-
I voluntarily reviewed an Advance Reader Copy of this book.