How to Seduce a Bride

Botany Bay #4

by Edith Layton

How does one seduce a bride?

Step One: Lay bare her mysteries...

Daisy Tanner has taken the ton by storm and Leland Grant, Viscount Haye, wants to know everything about this ravishing, secretive woman who is tempting his friend into marriage. Though his rakish reputation is the stuff of legend, Leland is curiously undone by this exquisite creature who threatens to turn his footloose single life topsy-turvy. Never has he wanted a woman more...

Step Two: Strip her of her inhibitions...

Having survived a difficult past, Daisy now desires the security of an uncomplicated marriage with some safe, undemanding gentleman. How dare this dashing rogue Lord Haye distract her with his suspicions...and unbalance her with his sensuous promises? If Daisy isn't careful, her scandalous history could become common knowledge. Worse still, she might actually fall in love with this notorious seducer whose touch excites her like nothing has before...

Genres: Historical Romance, Romance, Historical, Historical Fiction, Fiction

384 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published May 30, 2006

About the author

Edith Layton wrote her first novel when she was ten. She bought a marbleized notebook and set out to write a story that would fit between its covers. Now, an award-winning author with more than thirty novels and numerous novellas to her credit, her criteria have changed. The story has to fit the reader as well as between the covers.

Graduating from Hunter College in New York City with a degree in creative writing and theater, Edith worked for various media, including a radio station and a major motion picture company. She married and went to suburbia, where she was fruitful and multiplied to the tune of three children. Her eldest, Michael, is a social worker and artist in NYC. Adam is a writer and performer on NPR's Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me. Daughter Susie is a professional writer, comedian and performer who works in television.

Publishers Weekly called Edith Layton "one of romance's most gifted writers." Layton has enthralled readers and critics with books that capture the spirit of historically distant places and peoples. "What I've found," she says, "is that life was very different in every era, but that love and love of life is always the same."

Layton won an RT Book Reviews Career Achievement award for the Historical genre in 2003 and a Reviewers' Choice award for her book The Conquest in 2001. Amazon.com's top reviewer called Layton's Alas, My Love (April 2005, Avon Books), "a wonderful historical." And her recent release, Bride Enchanted, is a Romantic Times 2007 Reviewers' Choice Award Nominee.

Edith Layton lived on Long Island where she devoted time as a volunteer for the North Shore Animal League , the world's largest no-kill pet rescue and adoption organization. Her dog Daisy --adopted herself from a shelter-- is just one member of Layton's household menagerie.

Edith Layton passed away on June 1, 2009 from ovarian cancer.

Reviews

[Preeti ♥︎ Her Bookshelves · Rating 4 out of 5]

This turned out to be awfully sweet!
Slow, full of fillers and diversions but undeniably sweet.

And there I was, unsure of the crude ex-con h and the preening, foppish H to begin with.
He considers her a gold-digger out to capture his older friend/mentor and she considers him someone definitely not interested in women! Great beginning!
But they superbly redeem themselves especially the H - I loved how much he loved her, silently adored her. *sigh* I could actually feel his love.
Loved him!

[Maria · Rating 4 out of 5]

Daisy Tanner finally escapes from Botany Bay as a free woman and heads straight for London and the only man who has ever treated her well, the new Earl of Egremont. London is not what she expects, nor is Geoff, who is now one of the richest men in England. Dismayed and worried, she makes the best of her sojourn in London and tries to decide what she really wants from life. Is it a man, who can rule her life? Or is it peace and quiet and a few friends? Viscount Haye helps her make up her mind, but in the end she has no choice.

[Julia · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have finally finished the Botany Bay series, and I enjoyed every second of it! This last book was a new perspective on some charming characters. Though somewhat predictable, I still enjoyed the plot twists. Loved this book and especially loved the series!

[Alina · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is awful. Don't read it.

[vynnie · Rating 2 out of 5]

it was so boring

[Nabilah · Rating 4 out of 5]

A quiet and sweet romance - two wounded souls who found and healed each other.

[Lynne Tull · Rating 4 out of 5]

The final book of the four-book series rated right up there with the first one, 'The Return of the Earl'. The story had mystery and romance in equal amounts. The H/H were intriguing. We had met Leland Grant, Viscount Haye, in 'Gypsy Lover'. He was a most interesting character in the story and continued to be in this one. He almost seemed to have stepped out of a Georgette Heyer novel, as did Daisy. There was a secondary story that piqued your interest and kept you guessing right up to the end. I recommend the whole series. I like Edith Layton's writing even though she has a habit of overdoing the educational details for my taste.

[penelopewanders · Rating 4 out of 5]

Last in the Botany Bay series, and not a disappointment. Of course it's fairly predictable, but fun nonetheless, and Layton does have a way with words. I had picked this up a short while ago and then started recognizing characters from Gypsy Lover (which I hadn't realized was part of a series). Put it down and read the others in the series in order (except for Gypsy Lover which I'd since traded).

[Cary · Rating 3 out of 5]

I started reading this and recognized the characters! I had read about them before. Stories are different but do make mention of others. I enjoyed this as it wasn't silly girl to fall in love with handsome rogue!

[Maxi Bolongaita · Rating 1 out of 5]

It's rare for me not to like a cheesy romance but I thought this was ridiculous. I love Edith Layton for sure, but this one just kinda irked me for some reason. Maybe it was the girl. Maybe it was the guy? Maybe it was the prattling about everyone else in between but I was not happy.

[Marcela Brandao · Rating 2 out of 5]

For some reason this really didn't hold up on the second reading. All of the characters really got on my nerves with their style of expository dialogue. I think this one might be going in the donate pile.

[Frances · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this 11 years ago and recently decided to re-read the series. This book was so much better than it was the first time I read it.

[Nenya · Rating 4 out of 5]

I remember liking it when I read it. But with absolutely no desire to ever reread it again. Will go back and check on that ;).

[Melania Ramona · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars

[Julie Eichelberger-Ford · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the fourth in the Botany Bay series. I found this to be a cute, funny and enjoyable read. I especially liked that the hero, Lee, is not described as beautiful or gorgeous but as handsome with somewhat character flaws such as long nose, extremely thin and tall. Again, I liked that the heroine didn't become an instant lady but had trouble with language and mannerisms that she would have acquired while being a convict. The story is extremely well written and realistic to a certain degree. Well done.