Rowena's review of One Night in London by Caroline Linden

"Landep News"
Rowena's review of One Night in London by Caroline Linden.

Hero: Edward de Lacey
Heroine: Lady Francesca Gordon

A bargain that was all business . . . and pure passion.

Neither wealth nor beauty will help Lady Francesca Gordon win custody of her young niece Georgina, saving the girl from a cruel stepmother; she needs London’s top solicitor for that. But when Edward de Lacey, son of the powerful Duke of Durham, hires away the one man who can do the job, Francesca decides Edward himself must champion her case . . . if only she can melt the dashing lord’s stony heart.

Edward has reason to be guarded, though. London’s tabloids have just exposed a secret that could ruin his entire family. When Francesca offers a unique chance to undo the damage, Edward is forced to agree to a partnership . . . and now, each moment together feeds the flames of his scandalous longing for the passionate widow. But when Georgina disappears, fate will test them both . . . and leave their love hanging in the balance.

I've only read a couple of Caroline Linden books and while I've enjoyed them, I haven't really been blown away by any of her books yet but I'm still hopeful. This book starts off with the hero's father revealing a secret that has the power to ruin their family. It's a secret that rocked me on my ass because I kept thinking, "How in the world has he kept that a secret this whole time?" and immediately, Edward and his brother Gerard want to jump into action and minimize the destruction and scandal that will arise once word gets out about the family secret.

While Edward wants to jump into action, first things first. They have to find their wastrel of a brother, Charlie first because he's the heir to the dukedom and it will affect him more than anyone. Not that he'd care or anything since Charlie does what he wants, when he wants and to hell with what anyone has to say but even he can't hide from this secret and when his brother's find him, he's out of commission and Edward, the faithful brother sets about trying to keep things under control.

Lady Francesca is trying to win custody of her young niece. It's hard to do that when her nieces guardian's won't give her up and it's even harder to get someone to listen to her, or take her case when other more important cases come up. Well, this case is important to her and Georgina is counting on her so Lady Francesca is going to do whatever it takes to get her back.

Enter Lord Edward. He needs help, she needs help and together they enter into a deal that will help the both of them out.

This book centered around the romance between Edward and Francesca and while that was all good and great, I must admit that I was much more interested in the overall story behind Edward's father's secret. I wish more page time was committed to that story because my nosy ass wanted to know every little thing about the other wife, the potential other family, the blackmail and just all of that. I guess we have more to look forward to from this series in regards to all of that but I was thirsty for more of that in this book.

Edward was one of those heroes that always does the right thing, even when he'd rather do anything but and Francesca had a big heart and the love she had for her niece was nice to read about. I liked them but I wasn't over the moon in love with them. I wish I had connected more with Francesca but while I admired her fight and admired the love she had for her young niece, there was something (I'm not quite sure what) missing to make me flat out love her. Same with Edward, he was fine and a good hero but that's it. Overall this story was good but it wasn't the fabulous read that I was hoping it would be. There were times when it was too easy for me to put this book down to try something else but it wasn't by any means, a bad book. The storyline, the characters and the main couple are all good but I just wanted to care or connect with them more and I didn't.

Grade: 3 out of 5

This book is available from Avon. You can buy it here or here in e-format.

Thank's for link:

Tweet