Lorraine Heath - The Duke and the Lady in Red

When Rosalind Sharpe gains the attention of the deliciously wicked Duke of Avendale, she’s torn between her distracting attraction to the notorious rogue and the knowledge that he—rich as Croesus—is the perfect target for a deception that will put her swindling days behind her.
However, Avendale is no fool. After he discovers the tantalizing lady packing up to leave London with his coins in tow, he confronts her with a scandalous proposition: she can have all the money she requires…for a week in his bed.
Desperate for the funds, Rose agrees, but on one condition: he must never question her motives. Avendale quickly sees beneath her mask and discovers she is more than passion and pleasure—she is everything he has ever desired. But claiming her requires he unveil her secrets and lose her forever. Unless he can put his own dark past aside and risk everything for a chance at love.

Comment: This is the 3rd installment of the Scandalous Gentlemen of St James series by Lorraine Heath. As with the previous two, this left something to be desired in how it captivated me and it's more along the lines of the first in how I liked it, being the second so far, one step ahead but not that much. As a whole, I've got to say this series has been the weakest of the author's work I've read so far.

In this story we follow the duke of Avendale, he is the son of one of the heroines from the previous Scoundrels of St James series, from which this spin off one originated. Avendale's mother was mistreated and abused by her husband, his father. Things got solved when Avendale was a little boy so his recollection of those times is not the best but he has believed his whole life his mother was at fault. This means he doesn't want to be close to anyone so he won't have to compare his feelings with those who are happy.

In his life of debauchery he meets many women but none like the lady in red that one days shows up at the club his friend Drake has recently opened up to allow women too.

The lady is Rosalind Sharpe, a mysterious looking widow woman who seems to be new in town and who doesn't seem to care much about Avendale's title. When a game between them gets too complicated and he starts seeing things don't match where she's concerned, will they be able to put aside misconceptions and just accept each other?

It seems the books in this series have a common detail so far: all the heroes are people who had the best of two realities. All of them have had the privilege from a certain point on, to rely on wealth and some power in order to keep up their lifestyles and even the second hero, who had a less good start in his life, managed to be adopted by a well established family.

The other - and more important - detail they all share is that all have had the love, the care, the help, the possibilities of a good environment, of a good family and relationships by their side and they had no reason whatsoever to not respect those who have loved them.

This makes me think about the element in this book I disliked the most. How is it possible that the hero, as privileged and as intelligent as he lead us to believe, waited decades to ask questions regarding a scene he saw as a young, impressionable child but which affected and shaped his behavior completely from that on? I just cannot accept this as a possibility! If his family were mean, unapproachable, loveless, careless, I might have bought it he wanted distance and save his state of mind. But he had people who love him and were there for him all the time! No excuse why this was a so-called "tormented" hero.

Putting aside my pet peeve in relation to this poor choice of the hero's personality and attitude, of course the interesting part was to see him become a better person.

(Actually, I just never warmed up to him so I feel he was a wasted character)

The woman who caught his eye was much more interesting but some of her attitude wasn't as likable as I imagined. She is a woman in need, who swindles others because she needs money not just for herself but for others she is taking care of as well. I can understand why she wasn't an honest person but some of her self beliefs and reasons didn't make her look like a person I'd like to know.

With time and the situation around her unraveled, she became more intriguing and appealing but as a whole, they won't certainly be the couple I'd remember the most.

The most fascinating part of this novel is why Rosalind had to be dishonest. I could believe into her need to help her ill brother and why she felt he was more secure hidden away. I won't spoiler why but all the scenes involving him were emotional and well done, for me. It was also cute how Avendale wanted to help her by becoming friends with her brother and thankfully there was genuine interest from him in knowing a person with such a different life from his own.

This, of course, set off some character development for Avendale and we could see his best side as the story approached its end but for me it was too late.

At a certain point, Avendale solved his inner turmoils and discovered the answer to all his doubts but it was rushed, badly done and I was annoyed. The first half of the story he was an idiot (in my POV) but in the second he was still aloof enough to not be likable. I mean...the execution of his character development really fell poorly done.

Rosalind was, by now, a much more interesting character and I liked her more. However, the obvious difference from who the couple was and acted at first to how they ended...not believable for me, nor was it as romantically done as I imagined.

All things considered, this wasn't a terrible book but the characters could have been developed a lot better, many situations could have happened the same way but without the (unnecessary) drama intended and it would still have been a good story.

I hope the next installment is more romantic.

Grade: 5/10