Too Wicked to Love

Brides of Nevarton Chase #2

by Debra Mullins

Too wicked to love . . . but too tempting to resist!

Having already been deceived by a heartless fiancé, Genevieve Wallington-Willis knows better than to trust any man—which is why her attraction to John Ready is so very disturbing. Though devilishly handsome, he is far too mysterious—and a humble coachman, no less! But one inadvertent kiss and Genevieve is lost.

John dares not reveal his true identity to anyone or it's the gallows for certain! He must concentrate on clearing his name—and prevent the fiend who sullied it, the notorious Raventhorpe, from working his evil on another innocent victim. But being this close to the clever, courageous, and exquisite Miss Wallington-Willis is driving him to distraction. And surrendering to his desire—not to mention to love—may prove the most dangerous risk of all.

Genres: Historical Romance, Romance, Historical, Historical Fiction, Adult, Victorian, Fiction

384 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 12, 2011

About the author

(from website)I hate writing bios. They always seem so cut and dried. But you came to my website to learn more about me, so here goes.

I’m the oldest of four sisters, and we are full-blooded Irish on our father’s side. Oh, and our house had one bathroom. If you have any questions about where I got my flair for drama, just imagine that scenario on a Saturday night when four teen-aged girls need to get ready for their dates all at the same time.

‘Nuff said.

So, I am the writer in the family, though I always had a secret dream to be a torch singer. You know, like Michelle Pfeiffer in The Fabulous Baker Boys. My voice is OK, but the only place I feel comfortable singing is in the shower, so that was out. Besides, my sister Kate would kill me. She’s the singer in the family. Seriously, she sang at Carnegie Hall once (yeah, as part of a choir and with the orchestra and a bunch of other people, but Carnegie Hall! How many people can say that and be telling the truth?)

Anyway, I settled on writer and left the singing to Kate. My other two sisters are both artists, and no, they don’t have anything in the Louvre, but my sister Christine paints her house constantly, always changing the décor in her kids’ rooms. So you see? Creative impetus will out, and there’s no stopping it. Better to just give in and have the chocolate standing by for those moments of Artistic Frustration.

After giving up my torch singer aspirations (but before I fully accepted that I am A Writer) I gave serious thought to a practical career. The term “starving artist” was not conceived out of whimsy, you know, and I did have a fondness for food and shelter. So, soon after high school, I considered a career as a simultaneous interpreter for the UN.

I heard you giggle. Yes, I did. So let me clarify by adding that I have a gift for languages and had already taken several years of Spanish, French and Italian by the time I graduated high school, AND I had done the exchange thing in France, where I lived for a summer with a family, speaking nothing but French. So there.

Ahem. Anyway, in order to be a simultaneous interpreter, you need to know five languages. I had four under my belt (since I do know grammar and punctuation, I consider English the fourth language). I just had to learn one more language.

But that never happened. I chose True Love over College, then got married and started a family young.

Yes, you can laugh now.

Anyway, years pass. I gave in to my natural tendency to be a storyteller and started working on the one thing I had ever finished—a hand-written, 100 page “novel” about a Spanish pirate that I had completed in junior high. As an adult, I still felt there was a story there. That novel evolved into my first published work, ONCE A MISTRESS (Written in English, though my pirate does say cool Spanish words like mi amor and mi querida. Sigh. Swoon!) In 1996, ONCE A MISTRESS was a finalist in the prestigious Golden Heart competition run by Romance Writers of America. Two years later—OK, on January 26, 1998 at 4:06PM—Avon Books called and offered to publish my opus.

So there you go. I’ve written eight more books since then, often utilizing my knowledge of other languages for flavor. I visited the old West with DONOVAN’S BED and THE LAWMAN’S SURRENDER. (Oh, and DONOVAN’S BED was a finalist for RWA’s RITA Award for Best Short Historical in 2001, which is like an Oscar nomination in the land of romance writing. How cool is that?) Then I visited the Regency era. I won the NJ Romance Writers Golden Leaf Award for Best Historical (2003) with A NECESSARY BRIDE. In 2005, THREE NIGHTS… was nominated for Best Historical Romance in competition for Virginia Romance Writers’ prestigious Holt Medallion.

All of my Regency historicals have been optioned as featured selections by Doubleday Book Club and Rhapsody Book Club. My books have also been translated into Hungarian, Russian, and Portuguese f

Reviews

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

We first met the mysterious John Ready in Tempting a Proper Lady and you could just tell that this well spoken coachman had been brought up proper and must have a good reason to be serving as his best friends coachman. We also met our heroine, Genevieve Wallington-Willis and saw her spiteful reaction to her sisters homecoming so I did not have the warmest feelings to her but the first meeting of these two in this book had the sparks flying and I just kept flipping the pages to see how these two would finally end up together.

The main plot of the story revolves around John Readys sorrowful secret and what he has had to sacrifice to stay alive and hidden from London society. You think you know what the secret is going to be but then there is another slight twist to have you thinking another way until the truth is finally revealed, thankfully about halfway through the book so it is not dragged out forever. When circumstances force him to finally confess his secrets to his friends, that includes Genny and he cruelly ends their budding flirtation in order to protect her.

Genny is hiding her own secret but as she grows to develop feelings for John, she decides to trust him and tell him the truth. Her secret has led to her spiteful attitude towards her sister and others around her and it was nice to see her grow from that one fateful mistake into a lovely, caring, strong young woman. But after she tells John her secret she is beyond hurt when his actions towards her lead her to believe she has fallen for a heartless man again and she goes into a heartbroken depression. John sees this and finally tells her why he keeps pushing her away and she refuses to leave him to face his uncertain future alone. The conclusion that these two finally agree upon was very sigh worthy! Once again, the horrible Earl of Raventhorpe is ever present as a vile villain who will stop at nothing to get revenge on those who have stolen from him and he is out to get John, who had a previous altercation with him.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book. It was a wonderful story of deceit, love and forgiveness but it all moved along quickly. Even though I thought Genny was a bit immature in the beginning (she is only eighteen) she does blossom into a strong little warrior, as John nicknames her. And John secret was sort of what I thought, but not really at all what I thought which was great. I was very happy with the way it all played out and it showed a wonderful, strong, sexy man who is not afraid to put others happiness in front of his own. I would recommend reading Tempting a Proper Lady first as it is a continuation of that one and I am really hoping there is one more story featuring Annabelle and the mysterious highwayman Black Bill (who I believe I know who it is and there were a few hints dropped). A solid 4 heart warming stars

I received this ebook via netgalley.com

[Steamywindows♥♫ · Rating 2 out of 5]

I liked the story line of this book. The duke-in-hiding, finds his true love when he returns home after years away but since there is a villain trying to do everyone in, it doesn't seem that they will get their HEA. I like it when the hero and heroine get together before the last chapter. The main characters were interesting; a feisty female lead and a long suffering albeit mostly honourable hero. (Really there was only one TSTL moment)

I wasn't convinced the characters behaved in ways congruent with the period. Genny was not worried about about issues which I think most women of the time would have been, despite being an "admiral's daughter". Sometimes the language would catch me, and I wondered would they really have said things like "yeah"?

I would have liked to see the secondary characters with a bit more dimension. We never get to understand what motivates the villain to do what he is doing. The spoiled and flighty Annabelle seemed to be a bit too spoiled and flighty to be believed. However, she might well be the subject of the next book as the dangling romantic overtures between her and the disabled earl who is budding playwright who writes very bad plays and the notorious but honourable Black Bart who saves the day on more than one occasion. Now this character caught my attention and for that reason, I would be interested in the next book if he were to be the hero!

[Audrey · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh. There are problems when you find the mystery/subplots more interesting than the romance itself. Given what we saw of their interactions, I just didn't find it believable that they fell in love. That's a problem in a romance novel. A big problem.

[Perry Jones · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one was hard to rate the mystery was better than the romance at some times and the dynamics of the romance were not brought into the story until the final 200 pages of the book there was no sex scene until the final the final part of the book and she threw them in back to back i enjoyed this book alot. I'm going to let it sit for awhile and see if i dock it down 3 stars and leave it at that this book was enjoyable at times and it was raw and beautiful at time this romance plays with 4 tropes in one novel i appalled her this this masterpiece i really did enjoy this book i want to read the first novel in this series so i can see when john came into play. This book played with raw emotion at times this book had me so emo there were happy scenes and there were those raw sad scenes i really did think that john was gonna die because when he went to the church to go meet the fellow who had his only hope of freedom raventhorpe killed the perp for giving him the letter then the inspector who was going over johns case came into view and he caught the villain in his own game.

[Sara Reads (mostly) Romance · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Book Binge · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is the second book in the Brides of Nevarton Chase series and for the most part, I enjoyed it. This book follows Samuel Breedlove's best friend John Ready find his happily ever after. John's got a mysterious past and is determined to do his duty assigned to him by his friend, Samuel Breedlove and then return to America so that he can live out the rest of his life in peace. It's not the life he always dreamed he would have because he won't be living in his beloved homeland of England but the rotten Raventhorpe has made it impossible for him to come home so he spends his life in hiding.

When we first meet Genny, the heroine, I wanted to punch her in her freaking face. She is the most annoying girl. She's jumps to conclusions, she assumes and she, well she just annoyed me. I'm glad that I continued reading because over the course of the book, she did get better. While John had his secrets, Lady Genny had her own secrets as well.

Mullins does a great job of drawing the romance between John and Genny out. When I first started the book and John was so wanting to jump Genny's bones, I kept thinking that she must have been real pretty to look at because her personality was crap. She always assumes the worst in John even though he saves her from being accosted in the library, she assumes that he's trying to bag himself a rich heiress wife when she jealously catches him and Annabelle going off on their own. Those weren't the only times when she assumed the worst in John and John had done nothing to deserve her assumptions. The first book is about Genny's older sister who gets disowned by her family and Genny is angry at her for leaving, in this book we get the inside scoop on why she was so mad at Cilla. The more you read the book, the more you realize just why Genny is the way that she is.

She hasn't had an easy time of it where men are concerned and as the book continues, she gets better and better that by the end of the book, you almost forget what a shit she was in the beginning of the book and start to like her.

John was framed for the murder of his wife and he hasn't found the proof that will set him free so he lives in the shadows, trying to stay out of the limelight so that he doesn't get sent to the gallows. John is one of those solid heroes that you just want to hold close to your heart and make him all better, any way that you can. He's one of those stand up heroes that you come to adore. I enjoyed getting to know him and I enjoyed reading his story.

There were times when I wanted to beat him over the head with a club because of the decisions he made but overall, he was a great addition to this story. His martyr act at times got to be a bit much, especially since his plans were to give up the hunt and move to America to live out the rest of his life. The way that he was so hellbent on protecting Genny from himself got to be a bit much but in the end, the book ends the way it's supposed to end and the overall journey was a good one.

If you enjoyed the first book then I'm sure you'll enjoy this one too. The ending is pure cheese but still, it's an enjoyable read that fans of Debra Mullins will enjoy as well as fans of the historical genre.

Grade: 3.5 out of 5

This review was originally posted on Book Binge by Rowena.

[Melanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I reviewed this book for Romance Reader At Heart website:


RRAH's THOUGHTS AND PONDERINGS:

This story opens with our hero and heroine heading off to a house party in the country, while Captain Samuel Breedlove and Priscilla, his new bride, are off on their honeymoon. Before they depart, Samuel asks John to watch over Annabelle Bailey, who was apparently kidnapped by the villain, Lord Raventhorpe, and might still be in danger. Priscilla, on the other hand, is worried about her sister Genny, so she asks him to watch over her as well.

While he'd happily accommodate his best friend, Priscilla's wish bothers John as he thinks Genny's a big flirt, and he thought he'd be glad to see the last of her at the wedding. You can imagine his surprise when he finds out that for the foreseeable future, they'll be in the country for the same party.

As for our heroine, she thinks John's too forward in his manner and ways for the coachman, but naturally, John's not who everyone thinks him to be.

This is a well written and well executed romance. There is plenty to recommend it. All the characters were three-dimensional; intrigues and villainy abounds; and I must admit to some interesting, yet predictable, twists and turns that were quite entertaining. Still, I felt the author didn't quite do such a great job in developing the relationship between the hero and the heroine. I liked them separately. Their characters were fully developed, but their back and forth sort of left me a bit cold. For some reason, their relationship didn't click for me.

As the novel picks up where TEMPTING A PROPER LADY left off, for the most part of this read, I was lost. Without reading the previous novel, most of this story's plot made no sense to me, and it took me awhile to decipher who's who and what's what. Eventually it all fell into place, but alas, too late for me to enjoy it fully.

From the prologue of this tale, I had a feeling that I should have read the first book of this trilogy. If you've read the previous book, I'm sure you'll appreciate this story more than I have. It has everything a historical romance should--a very likeable hero with a secret identity, a flirtatious but untrusting heroine, and a bloodcurdling villain who'll do anything to destroy them all.

Melanie

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book wasn't fantastic, and it wasn't horrible. A very strong four stars for a book that was a good read yet I had no trouble putting it aside for Chasin Eight.

John Ready is a great character who is too noble for his own good. Genny is very melodramatic and immature in the beginning, but she is young in life experience. You begin to forgive her as John forces her to see beyond her self to life. She grows very nicely into a mature young woman who recognizes the difference between puppy love and long, soul mate love.

The other characters, the play, etc. was a forgettable back drop. The only two of interest were Sir Harry and Black Bill (whom I have theories about). Even Annabelle, the instigator for this plotline is forgettable.

The end is neat and tidy, but I have a feeling it isn't really the end. The family resolution is way too neat and tidy, but really who cares? They get their HEA, everyone is adoring, and we move on.

Again, nothing spectacular, but worth your time - especially if you're like me and waiting to read about Black Bill anyway!

[Nikki · Rating 1 out of 5]

No, a whole lot of no. The heroine stuck out like a soar thumb. She added nothing. And we had two plots going on. If we had only one that would have made sense. It was like too books smushed together. The hero I liked but he didn't seem very firm on anything but being mean to the heroine at first, then all he does is is flip flop 'I'm going to America, nope I'm gonna get my title back, you can't help me, alright you can help'. I didn't believe for a moment that the hero 'loved' the heroine. It just comes up like vomit 'oh I love her, when did that happen?' Yeah I was thinking the same thing. The heroine was unrootable. As a reader you can't support her and all she wants is to have sex with the hero. 'there must be a way around his armor of honor'....you want to turn a guy into unhonorable? Yeah no one who 'loves' another person wants to trick someone into being unhonorable.

The heroine makes the same mistake TWICE and she even says she did but eh...its never addressed. But don't read this. Waste of time.

[Judy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I picked this book up at a used book sale and it's going right back to another sale. I read the first in the series, didn't particularly care for it, but persevered with this one because I wanted to find out the secret of the hero, John Ready.

While I liked the hero for the most part, I really could not accept that he would fall for the heroine, Genny. I had a hard time empathizing with an 18-year-old heroine who worried that she was past her prime because she had lines on her face. Really?

So, the secret is revealed, the bad guy is captured finally, and we get the HEA. I found the resolution of the mystery plot unsatisfactory. We are never given any motivation for why the evil guy acted the way he did. Why did he set the hero up to take the fall in the past? Did he just want revenge on anyone who ever crossed him? Was he a sociopathic serial killer? Who knows?

I won't be reading any other books by this author.

[Janelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loathed Genny in the first book, so I wasn’t convinced the author could redeem her and make me believe she was deserving of romance. Fortunately she ended up being redeemed but we got some satisfaction out of it - there were incredible moments where John straight up told her she was a bitch destined for spinsterhood because she’s so awful and nobody likes her. I WAS LIIIIIIVINGGGGG.

I liked how Genny had been “ruined” and enjoyed sex and wasn’t a naive virginal heroine. Unfortunately I didn’t buy into the romance though, I needed to see more chemistry and them spending time together before they jumped into marriage.

Also the murder plot and Raventhorpe arc was tied up too quickly and suddenly the book was over?

Frankly I was more intrigued by Annabelle and Black Bill. Give me their book please!

[Beth Yarnall · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really loved how this romance played out. There were a few twists and turns (no spoilers please) and a lot of growth for both Genny & John before they reached their HEA. I loved how Genny never gave up on John and was willing to share her secret & help him get his life back despite the great emotional risk for her. Genny had the most growth, starting as a kind of spoiled young lady to a more mature generous woman who would sacrifice anything for those she loved. I'm really looking forward to the third book in this series. There are too many loose ends and two characters who really deserve their own HEA.

[Laine · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading the book. During my first read I got bored because I was expecting to read the action/point of the plot, and as I read deeper I was hooked and got me enthralled with the twist of it. Did I even made sense, sorry about that. Guess I am not over the story.

The story of John and Genny shows how to fight for the one you love and standing beside him despite what others think of him. That was seen when John revealed his true identity and immediately the guests and hosts jumped to the conclusions that he is a murderer, but Genny was there to defend John. I just simply love that part of standing up to her man.

[Deanne · Rating 1 out of 5]

When I picked this up from the self of my library and read the summary at the back I was excited and thrilled to think that I have good book in my hands , and since I was reading Mullin's book for the first time i thought I found another good author to help me satisfy my historical romance cravings , when I first open the book I thought the story line was alright , but soon as I reached the middle the story started to go downwards and in the end I simply can't finish due to my dissapoitment on where the story was headed .

[Ally72 · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was more of a 3.5 stars book for me, but I rounded it up to 4 stars.

[Linda · Rating 1 out of 5]

Couldn't get pass 1/4 of the book, sad to say. The heroine was terrible; I just couldn't continue.

[Melissa · Rating 1 out of 5]

Couldn't finish.

[Maxine Mansfield · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyable :)

[Noelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun, quick, forgettable story.

[Amy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Historical Romance set in England in the 1870's.

[S · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good read.

[Terry · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed the first book in this series but I loved this book.