Darius Carsington es un truhán atractivo e inteligente, un hombre que ocupa sus días acostándose con mujeres de moral relajada y escribiendo artículos académicos. Las «perfectas» damas de sociedad le parecen muy aburridas, pero en la intachable lady Charlotte Hayward intuye secretos del pasado. Descubrir las grietas que se esconden bajo una superficie demasiado pulida constituye para él un desafío irresistible.
Lady Charlotte es tan bella, encantadora y gentil que nadie se ha dado cuenta de su asombrosa habilidad para no casarse. De muy joven aprendió una lección dolorosa sobre la confianza… y las tentaciones. Desde entonces, ha dedicado su vida a ser todo lo que debería, y no tiene la mínima intención de dejar que un hombre como Carsington la empuje a hacer todo lo que no debiera.

I quite enjoyed this book. It sucked me right in. The writing as always from LC was very good and flowing. The plot made sense. I liked the set up of a young woman in the 19th century falling for a cad and having a baby which she has to give up for adoption to avoid scandal. I liked the way the heroine was honest with the hero and his reaction to her. There were some coincidences but hey it's a romance. The secondary characters were also well done and the other man developed in unexpected ways. Recommended. ( )

I enjoyed this, but it was just shy of earning 4 stars from me. I can't entirely put my finger on why (a few times something I'd been disliking was then accounted for and I felt a little better about it, but still it had been there which I hadn't enjoyed... so I felt a little bit torn). Chase is a good writer though, and the emotional conflict near the end made me tear up when I don't usually. ( )

This is another reread since I seem to be going through the entire series again and it's well worth it. Darius is the youngest of the Carsington sons and his father has now decreed that he change his circumstances, just like the older men. Darius is a scientist and a rake but determined not to marry as his father wishes, he takes on the challenge of reviving a derelict estate within the next year. His neighbor is the Marquis of Lithby, an admirer of Darius's papers on biology and farming, who has a daughter, Charlotte, who catches Darius's eye. Normally, he wants nothing to do with marriageable virgins, but Charlotte seems to be doing her best to avoid matrimony in a very subtle manner.
I always enjoy Ms. Chase's writing and this is no exception. She always makes an effort to subvert the tropes just enough to offer a fresh take. This is another good story in a very good series. ( )

Well thank goodness, I am warming up to Darius and Charlotte a lot faster than the main characters from the last book. Charlotte is of course a woman who does not want to get married but the way her thought process is described makes it more believable than other characters I have read before. Like Charlotte says "It was uphill work for an attractive, rich girl not to get married and not get caught not getting married." Sounds a little different from the usual "men are icky/loud/rude/stupid so I'm not going to get married" storyline. Charlotte just sounds more mature about not wanting to get married and her approach to avoiding it. Darius of course being the lead male also does not want to get married. He of course thinks love is "Superstition, Myth, and Poetic Nonsense".

All in all a storyline we have all read before but yet I'm intrigued by these characters; they seem to have some panache which is drawing me in.Sidenote: Oh how I wish we could have read more about the crazy old aunt who left her estate to her pug "Galahad"!

Haha Darius prides himself on spotting experienced women right away and Charlotte claims she can spot a rake at 50 paces. They seem to know each other's score.I absolutely loved how after Charlotte and Darius's first kiss she grabs his hat off his head, hits him with it, throws it to the ground and then kicks it. I love the childishness of it and can't help but wonder what Darius was thinking.
 
This book started off interesting but about halfway through it feel into the dreaded mediocre realm. Like I said before the storyline was nothing new so the only thing saving the story in the beginning was the characters personalities but at the end even the characters became blah.
 
The little boy Pip showing up was a little bit of a coincidence for me and how every thing worked out in the end. I was greatly disappointed in the end of this book.The last half was blah,blah,blah. A lot of books have been displaying this nasty trait lately. Haven't any of these authors heard of the saying "finish strongly"?
 
Anyway, I really liked how Darius would always think "I'm in trouble" whenever he was around Charlotte and how both of them tried to deal logically with everything and leave out emotions. These personality traits provided some great conversations between the two and wonderful inner dialogue.As always Loretta Chase is a wonderful writer and I really enjoy how she writes the interactions between her two lead characters, it just seemed like she was phoning this one in.
 
B- ( )