Genre: Historical
Heat Level: Erotic
Rating:

TWO DIFFERENT CLASSES, ONE COMMON DESIRE...

Lady Bernadette Marie Burton may be the richest widow in England, but like her dreams of finding true passion, her reputation is deteriorating. Cruel gossip, loneliness and hoards of opportunistic suitors have her believing Society couldn't be more vile...or dangerous. So when an attacker threatens her life, she finds safety in the most unseemly of places: the arms of a mysterious, Irish-American gang leader.

His fortune stolen, young Matthew Joseph Milton is done playing the respectable gentleman. In the slums of New York, only ruffians thrive. But from the moment he arrives in London and encounters the voluptuous Lady Bernadette, he can't help but wonder about the finer pleasures he's missing. Or just how much he's willing to risk-not only to bed her, but to prove his worth....

 

Review

The art of pushing the envelope…

Forever a Lady is Marvelle’s second book in the Rumors series is definitely a complete different tale then her first book, which I felt was a bit of letdown. Forever a Lady makes up for book 1 in a bunch of ways. Of course you never know what to expect when reading a Marvelle romance, and she certainly didn’t try to break the trend. From our hero, Matthew Milton acting very un-heroic in a few instances to the lovely heroine being as lusty as a courtesan, I could never guess what was coming next and this is what made the book so good.

With most romances you can typically predict what will happen and even the sensual parts of the story seem to have a pattern, but with this book I couldn’t predict anything. Just when I thought either hero or heroine would shy away or act a certain way they did the opposite, which made both Matthew and the lovely Lady Bernadette Burton more realistic. I don’t think people should be predictable and I enjoyed not knowing how Bernadette would respond to Matthew being so forward about his desires or how Matthew would appreciate Bernadette sending someone to follow him around town. Gang leaders don’t typically enjoy being followed, and well-bred ladies typically want men to be more courteous when expressing their desires.

Bernadette is not the simpering miss, and she’s always on the search for an adventure… a pirate; found in our gorgeous Matthew. Her main problem: men have given her cause to pause. Her original intentions towards Matthew gear toward the one night stand kind, until he does something somewhat heroic and idiotic in one fell swoop. Previous readers will remember Lady Burton as the woman to assist Georgia in becoming a lady fit for British society. Thanks to Georgia’s step-son Lady Burton may not be a good fit for society after he’s done with her.

Matthew is the man fighting against fate to become more then the hand he’s been dealt. He doesn’t always play fair, and his morals have taken a beating since he lives in the roughest part of New York City. His poor decisions, robbing an aristocrat in the name of honoring the lady, cost him Lady Burton’s trust, and he spends the better half of the book becoming the person he believes he should be to regain that trust; which leads to my favorite part of the story:

He momentarily closed his eyes. Scrubbing his hair with a hand, he blew out a long breath and reopened his eyes. “If I were to accept both—which I damn well want to—I’ll need time. I’m hoping you’ll be able to give it to me. Will you?”

“Time? For what?

“To become the man I want to be. To become the man you deserve to know.”

A small smile touched her lips. “I respect that.”

He held her gaze. “You would wait for me?”

Her heart jolted. This was where she had to accept that, sometimes, not everything could be controlled, and that when it came to what went on between a man and a woman, there were no rules. Only a blind hope that it would all work out. “Yes. I would wait for you.”

Marvelle tends to make the journeys of her characters end unexpectedly and when I typically think there should be more. Forever a Lady was different, the story was told to completion. I felt the feelings and emotions between both hero and heroine were given sufficient time to grow and develop. Both characters overcome their different weaknesses and grow from their interactions and the interactions of others.  

My only caveat is for those who are not fans of erotic interactions. Marvelle does push the envelope with the romantic interactions and a couple of other situations (not realized) that may affect readers who are easily disinclined toward women being threatened with rape (not hero related) and bound with straps (hero related). If any of these situations may cause stress, then this book may not be for you. I was not deterred from the reading by the course of actions throughout the book.

In my opinion this is the best book of the Rumor series thus far. I can only hope the third story is just as good.

Reviewed by Landra

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