Elizabeth Hoyt - Notorious Pleasures

Lady Hero Batten, the beautiful sister of the Duke of Wakefield, has everything a woman could want, including the perfect fiancé. True, the Marquis of Mandeville is a trifle dull and has no sense of humor, but that doesn't bother Hero. Until she meets his notorious brother . . .
Griffin Remmington, Lord Reading, is far from perfect - and he likes it that way. How he spends his days is a mystery, but all of London knows he engages in the worst sorts of drunken revelry at night. Hero takes an instant dislike to him, and Griffin thinks that Hero, with her charities and faultless manners, is much too impeccable for society, let alone his brother. Yet their near-constant battle of wits soon sparks desire - desire that causes their carefully constructed worlds to come tumbling down. As Hero's wedding nears, and Griffin's enemies lay plans to end their dreams forever, can two imperfect people find perfect true love?

Comment: This is the second installment in the Maiden Lane series by author Elizabeth Hoyt. I liked the first book so it wasn't a hardship to start this second one as well and it was even better when, at the end of it, I was left with a smile because I really liked it a lot.

In this book we meet heroine Hero, a secondary character from the previous book, stopping and somehow helping a couple from being caught by the woman's...husband in a compromising position. The man gets on Hero's nerves but she is a lady so she tries to forget about him, something that proves too difficult because he happens to be the younger brother of her dull fiancé.

Griffin is surprised the prim lady he met minutes before is his future sister-in-law. His relationship with his brother no longer is the same but he knows provoking this woman would be a mistake. The problem is she is someone he can't get out f his head and the more he tries to forget her, the more he sees and needs to interact with her. Their common goals also seem quite alluring and it get to a point where it seems a heartbreak in waiting to think she will be married to his brother. 

But will things happen as properly as they should?

I really had a great time reading this book. You know when you finish a book, maybe it's not the best ever, but it touches you somehow and when it's over, you spend a long time thinking about the characters and how their lives went on, even after the book is over? Well, now that are practically five days after I finished it, I still wonder how the lives of those characters could have been and I can't help but smiling very time.

I know perfectly this doesn't make the book the best fiction romance ever but somehow the elements were all aligned to make this a good story for me. I liked ow the apparent silly first meeting of the protagonists was not the motto for the rest of a very romantic situation. Even the sex scenes between them didn't feel "wrong" or "ill timed" because for me the feelings were always there, obvious between them. I truly appreciated how it seemed such a focal point this notion the reader got that they were falling in love. Then the final scenes of the book, before the epilogue, I don't know, but they seemed so perfectly inserted and that made he story feel sweeter.

The plot is not very original, basically younger brother falls for brother's fiancé and his whole personality is misjudged by everyone. Adding an interesting moral battle against gin because of how it affects people, we have a story that has its drama but never gets out of romance areas. It was very interesting how all the little clues were placed in a way that would allow for a convincing story and character's choices and steps.

There is also some secondary sub plots, mainly seen through character's POVs and this is why I like multi POVs, when done well, can give the reader amazing glimpses of others and that makes me have the sensation I'm reading about a cast of characters and not a couple completely isolated from the world (which wouldn't be as compelling overall).

Hero and Griffin don't immediately give in to their feelings and I really loved how gradual that happens. I was eager to keep reading, just to see what they would do the next time thy would be together. Their relationship is both romantic and passionate but doesn't feel anything between them was there just because, I liked the notion of inevitability I always look for in romance stories, after all, that is my hope in fiction, to be wowed and marveled by a romance. 

Since I liked it so much, I haven't got much to say negatively and I pretty much said why I liked so I won't be repetitive and say it all again. I loved this story and I hope the rest of the series is as vibrant and appealing.

Grade: 9/10