Lord Ruin

The Sinclair Sisters #1

by Carolyn Jewel

Could she trust her heart to the most notorious rake in London?

The Duke of Sin

The Duke of Cynssyr didn't believe in love. He planned to marry for beauty. But a night of unforgettable passion left him a changed man—a man tied to a bespectacled spinster. Anne Sinclair's long legs drove him wild with desire, and her quick wit challenged his mind. Ruined for any other, the notorious rake had only one choice: to court his wife. To win her confidence, however, nothing less than his love would do.

The Divine Sinclair

Anne Sinclair had sworn to protect her sister from the infamous Lord Ruin. Yet she never expected to sacrifice her own virtue. Forced to give the rogue her hand in marriage, she vowed never to relinquish her heart. But Ruan worshiped her body and valued her intelligence, making Anne long to succumb to the ultimate temptation: falling for her husband.

Genres: Historical Romance, Historical, Romance, Regency, Marriage Of Convenience, Historical Fiction, Regency Romance

342 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published December 1, 2002

About the author

Carolyn Jewel was born on a moonless night. That darkness was seared into her soul and she became an award winning and USA Today bestselling author of historical and paranormal romance. She has a very dusty car and a Master’s degree in English that proves useful at the oddest times. An avid fan of fine chocolate, finer heroines, Bollywood films, and heroism in all forms, she has two cats and a dog. Also a son. One of the cats is his.

Reviews

[ᑭᑌᑎƳᗩ [Punya Reviews...] · Rating 3 out of 5]

My review contains spoilers and they're mostly my thoughts as I went with the book...

I tried and tried to like this book but there were just too many eww-factors and my pet peeves I couldn’t ignore. More than once I wanted to DNF it. At one point I want it to end, simply end and relieve me of my misery.

Ruan, the duke of Cynssyr, is a rake. Yes, one of those sparkly dukes whose lovers/mistresses are scattered there in every nook and cranny. He’s a lawyer and a detective. The book starts with him talking to his friends and contemplating a possible conquest of a married woman. His other friends are Benjamin aka Ben, Baron Aldreth and Devon, the viscount Bracebridge. Ruan has been in the war with Devon. Ben 4 yrs ago fell in love and married one of the Sinclair sisters, Mary. Mary is beautiful. So is Lucy, a widow and the youngest Emily. It’s only Anne, who’s the eldest, a spectacle clad spinster isn’t the beautiful one, no idea why. I get it she’s tall but she’s got wheat blonde hair, blue-gray eyes and a great body (which Ruan finds out soon and can’t seem to get enough of!). At Ben’s marriage, Anne met Devon and there was a hint of a relationship. They liked each-other quite a lot but Anne’s good for nothing, ignorant father said ‘no’ because Devon didn’t have a title. Devon, I thought, was almost in love with her so I liked him. But I should’ve known better. He didn’t ‘wait’ for Anne for all these years but now that he’s got a title, he’s willing to offer for her again. Ruan may have met Anne but doesn’t remember her (who remembers the spinster when you get to f*ck all the shallow, air-headed but beautiful whores? Very logical!). All the Sinclairs are at present invited in Devon’s estate, Corth Abbey. Devon hopes for Anne and Ruan has decided since he has to do his ‘duty’ and produce an heir, why not offer for the most beautiful of the Sinclair sisters, Emily?

Anne is very excited to see Devon but she doesn’t believe he feels anything for her. She is very insecure about her looks, it doesn’t help that her insensitive father is always criticizing her. Whoa, I was pissed at the man! Then there is a little accident, where Anne gets hurt. Since Ruan wasn’t supposed to arrive til tomorrow, they put Anne in his room when the doctor was summoned and drugged her to sleep. In between she meets the Duchess, Ruan’s mother and another woman, a Lady Prescott, whom I didn’t think as Ruan’s lover. When it was revealed later, it was like a slap on my face. Then, oops Ruan is back at midnight to find a gorgeous whore in his room. FYI: Ruan always stays in this room when he’s in Corth Abbey and sharing/sending whores is nothing for Devon and Ruan. So what does he do? Does he make sure who the f*ck this woman was before banging her? Nope! He makes Anne ‘perform’ services and then of course proceeds to the next round. Egads, she’s a virgin! Does that stop him? No, again. And he experiences the best sex of his life (seriously, I would never believe that after all those gazillion women). They were discovered by Ben. Anne was drugged so she doesn’t quite remember it in the morning. I must tell you, Ben was comparably the nicer one in the lot. He was very responsible as the head of the family, truly loves Mary and was very very mad at Ruan for doing this. He cares for Anne a lot and tells Ruan that he would’ve never wished him upon her because she deserves better. Of course they have to marry now. Anne is shocked to know it from Ben, while Ruan was standing by. He was cold and very distant, not to mention insensitive. I mean he’s ‘Lord Ruin’ and is proud of it! I didn’t like it that I have to take him as he is (with his legions of lovers all over the place) simply because he’s a duke, rich, powerful and very handsome, which is exactly what Anne does later in the book. Whatever!

Oh but Ruan can’t get enough of his new wife. And it starts. They’re having sex everywhere, anytime! Since CJ talked about their sex life quite explicitly, it looked like a lot but it was nothing out of the ordinary IMO. In other books, H/h’s sex life isn’t always mentioned to this extent. There were at least 8/10 sex scenes, detailed or otherwise. The guy simply loved doing it with his wife. I’m totally ok with this. It’s supposed to be this way. I would’ve adored it to boots if the mentions of Ruan’s lovers/mistresses weren’t thrown all over the book. There was this one mistress he’s been seeing for about 3 years now, practically lived with her (though not faithful) in her house. She was like a ‘side dish’ IMO, someone he knew he could f*ck anytime he wanted. Later on, Ruan tells Anne that they have a longer history together. The woman married her deceased husband because Ruan won’t marry her, which according to Ruan he should’ve back then. When the husband died and Ruan was back from war, they became lovers. It was implied he’s got some strong emotion for this woman, so why didn’t he simply marry her later on? Am I supposed to believe he feels something different for Anne when even Anne herself knew he’s said ILU to women he wanted to f*ck? Ruan never denied that he did these things, nor did he repent his time with this woman (maybe the others too), as he informed Anne later. Anyway, Anne and Ruan come back to London when Anne finds out she’d pregnant. And yes, they keep having sex, really good sex at that. Anne wants him for sure but is firm in her decision that she won’t let him in her heart.

It’s in the ball for Anne is where the mistress makes her first appearance, like she had every right to be there. Devon, Ruan and Ben were, meanwhile, investigating some beatings and rape of women, some of whom disappeared only to be found murdered. Some, who are rescued, won’t talk about it. Anne already met a few men in London and it seems like now that she’s married, all men find her appealing and beautiful. But, the fact was Anne was pretty in her own right, only the men were morons, shallow minded morons at that. So, one of the Lords, Wilberfoss attacks Anne in the ball. Anne went to talk to him privately because she thought he wanted to talk about Emily. Anne somehow saves herself but is pretty shaken and instantly wanted Ruan to hold her. What does she see when she finally finds him out? He being all cozy with his mistress in a private room. He’s a bit annoyed by Anne’s intrusion. Anne feels betrayed but did she fight back later on? Nope. Sex is great, he’s good looking and he makes me all fluttery inside, why fight? Seriously?! I didn’t really care for all the sex scenes, except for one at the very end when Ruan basically loses control for the first time.

Anne takes all the talks of his mistresses/lovers very easily. Sorry, I’m not that ‘practical’ so I couldn’t. I mean if she didn’t feel anything for him, it would’ve been ok (theoretically) but she knows there is a possibility that she might come to care for him very much and Ruan is NOT the kind of man you trust your heart with. Anyway, they form a kind of friendship but Ruan was falling for her steadily. Sadly, I couldn’t believe anything he did. Anne learns of the kidnappings and murders and tells Ruan she’d like to help. Ruan is very impressed with her intelligence. Yah, well so far he’d been interested in everything else other than intelligence in a woman so Anne is a novel experience for him. He keeps making love to her and tries to convince her of his feeling, in vain. Me? I was pretty bored. Anne starts interviewing some of the victims, women who won’t talk before and brought information for Ruan. They narrow the attacker down to the Marquess of Thrale, Robert. He is a nice guy so Anne doesn’t believe this. He’s also interested in Emily, though from his apparent exasperation at Lucy, I tended to think otherwise. But there are evidences as well as one victim, before committing suicide, names him and gives some things to Anne which indicated that Robert was involved. Anne is sad and horrified. Another thing is that, almost all the women were blondes, except Ruan’s mistress. She was duped as well but I’m not sure when. Ruan just blurts out this information to Anne when they were talking about the victims. There are actions in between; hearing the news they rush to save the victim but it was too late. Robert was found there but he said he’s innocent.

Anne and Ruan keep fighting their little war. Not sure if I should call it a war because Ruan was determined, somehow he’d make her love him, if it means sex all the time. Anne NEVER said no to sex, even knowing one of the supposed victim’s mothers was also his lover. Remember I talked about one of his conquests at the beginning? It was the same woman though I have NO IDEA when he ‘accomplished’ the deed. When they confronted about their feelings, as I said, Ruan never denied that he lied about his feelings to get what he wanted from those women. Even his longtime one, I guess, believed he loved her. So I was pretty disgusted the way he just set her aside, after their elongated history, like she means nothing at all. But, that wasn’t the case as I found out later on. Remember that he still didn’t break off with her and Anne knew. How am I going to believe you Ruan? Simply impossible! I don’t blame Anne for not granting him her heart, though I wish she didn’t let him have sex. It would’ve been a test for him, to see if he really was sincere (pun intended as Ruan was called the Insincere Cynssyr).

Then the book focused on the murders with Anne helping them out. More on Ruan’s trying to ‘convince’ her of his feelings. I don’t really remember much as I was pretty pissed. I mean, this moment I thought I might believe him, his feelings but the next there would be the mention of a mistress/lover or simply that woman and I would lose interest all over again. How could Anne stand him for crying out loud? Let me give you another example. It seems like Ruan has PTSD. I mean wow, I love a tortured hero. But Ruan, I didn’t care for. When he woke up from one of those dreams, you know whom he was thinking of? Yes, you’re right, that mistress of his. He was thinking oh, this doesn’t seem like her house, the woman next to him isn’t her etc etc. I get it that he was pretty fuzzy from his dream but the mistress was so embedded in his mind, ah what can I say? I didn’t like it at all. Of course when he came to his senses he realized who it was. So, what if Anne’s the only woman to share your bed in your house? Was it supposed to be a prize or something? I didn’t give a sh*t about this information!

More mess ahead. One of the men called Durling, a rake and gambler, was quite enamored of Anne himself but never made any advances towards her. He, knowing about the killings and accompanying Ruan and co. in one of the scenes, told Ruan once that Anne might be the next victim. He was drunk at that point so Ruan couldn’t really get much from him. When Ruan goes to save one of the victims, who almost died, is when he’s kinda shaken to think what if it was Anne. It is then that love scene happens; where he loses control, sort of and I kinda felt that maybe his feelings were genuine. Meantime in one of the diplomatic meetings Ruan was voted to go to abroad on a mission but Ruan wasn’t interesed to leave London for an adventure because of Anne. He tells his counterparts that, which I liked. Anyway, Ruan decides to send Anne to Cornwall, in his estate called Fargate Castle knowing the dangers. But he can’t simply think of being apart from her. Even though it was pretty late in the book, I began to believe that Ruan’s feelings for her were real. The man tells his friends, too. In one of those talks, Ben confides in him that he’d also ‘noticed’ Anne but somehow, it was Mary he fell in love with. I mean WTF is their problem? It seemed like now everyone thinks Anne is ‘worth’ having while previously no one cared at all. No, she still didn’t wear revealing gowns or flirted, didn’t even leave her spectacles. How come suddenly she’s so appealing to everyone? God knows but it left me pissed. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I liked Anne but it was really odd!

Devon never made it a secret that he wanted Anne. Anne was quite confused about Ruan’s declaration of love. She didn’t believe him but wanted to very much. Yet, she relied on Devon. It was not love but she cares for him. *rolls eyes* Anyway, it was her birthday and she and Ruan had crazy sex last night but what does she do when she’s in Ben’s house and Ruan was yet to attend it? She tells Devon something like she can’t take it anymore, that Ruan loves his mistress. It implied that she wants him to save her, which Devon reciprocates by saying he’d help when the time is right and the baby is born. *makes a face here* Everyone thinks of Emily, Anne’s youngest sister, as a child (she being something like 18). Ruan arrives late. Emily was giving a bit of ‘what for’ to Ruan while accompanying him and barbing him with insults about his treatment of Anne, only to find Devon and Anne together. They eavesdrop. Ruan was shocked but wasn’t that surprised by Anne’s admission. Oh my, it seems like Emily is interested in Devon herself, who is at least 14/15 years older than her. What a mess! She is angry and hurt by this display. Umm why? When they later unwrap the birthday gifts, Ruan gives Anne something special and says ILU in front of everyone, mostly to notify Devon that Anne is out of reach (also note: Lady Prescott aka his one time lover present). Oh, Anne is so happy to have this, that she kissed him with a lot of enthusiasm. What was that? She was just planning something with Devon and now she’s in seventh heaven because of Ruan’s gift and declaration? My head hurts.

But oh, some more fun is still to come! Meanwhile, the climax of the murder mystery was coming up and I knew it. They still thought Robert as the murderer. Ruan talks about his longtime mistress to Anne as they were talking about the victims and Anne tells him she’s been to see her, to find out information and was followed on the way back. It seems since that woman’s husband didn’t treat her well because of her ordeal, Ruan stepped in to ‘help’. Anne is quite proud of Ruan. Seriously?! If he had any good intentions or love so to speak, he would’ve married her by now, not keep her as a ‘side dish’ while he went about cutting his swath through London. How can I respect a man like that? Even Ruan knew he had nothing to convince Anne of his feelings. There was another scene where he tells Anne he’s ‘seen’ his mistress but I wasn’t sure if he cheated or not. He simply said, I’ve seen her, it’s over. Anne, the good and angelic Anne, says nothing about it; nothing that I wanted from her at least. Oh but it wasn’t over. You’ll know soon why I said that.

Ruan sends Anne to Cornwall but on the way, she was kidnapped. Ruan didn’t know it until someone send for him, only to dupe him. He was about to be beaten, maybe killed but somehow he manages to escape. Ruan comes back home and decides to go to Cornwall when Robert calls. Ruan still suspected Robert but he tells Ruan that he saw his big carriage somewhere abandoned, with the coachman and one of the footmen murdered. Emily meanwhile comes in to confront Ruan about sending Anne away, not knowing that it was everything to do with the pregnancy as well as Anne’s own safety. Ruan feels helpless, not knowing what to do so he decides to send for Ben and Devon. Emily takes on the task of summoning Devon. In Devon’s townhouse, OMG, it was one disgusting scene! Devon was screwing a married woman at that time, actually just finished the second round, musing that he was going to marry in a year or so. I thought, at this point, that maybe the woman was a widow or something and he’s thinking of marrying her. But, of course not. They can’t seem to do anything that isn’t utterly vile when it involves women. He was contemplating marrying the woman’s daughter. Yes, her bloody DAUGHTER! And the woman herself KNEW of it. I mean HOW COULD THEY? It was so so horrible even to imagine! What would they do next, cheat on the poor girl after marriage? I mean what kinda mother was that woman? EWWWW!!!! I had some soft corners for Devon, especially after he was robbed of Anne in the beginning and thought his affections were genuine but oh God, yuk! Emily finds him like that, naked with the woman by his side. I won’t go into Anne’s rescue which took place afterwards because I had lost all my interest in this book, but that Devon is now fantasizing about Emily. Good Lord! And Emily not only touched him but let him kiss her. YUK!!! I don’t think he was even clean. Simply awful. Sorry, but that thought kept coming to me as I knew she only gave him time to dress and then accompany her to Ruan’s home. Lord, I shudder as I think of it. Egh!

Anne was beaten but not raped. She was rescued by the men as Emily accompanied them. The murderers were revealed and died in the scuffle. They come home. Anne falls asleep in exhaustion but woke up late at night to find her bed empty. She, with difficulties, goes out to look for Ruan, only to find him with his mistress. Yes, THAT BLOODY WOMAN, again in the house, talking privately. I hated it, knowing even though they were only talking, it was private and glaringly shows their shared history. How could Anne just stand there, observed it? Do you know what Ruan was doing? Since he was pretty sure Anne would never return his affections (how long has it been Ruan, a month, two and you gave up already?) he’d let Anne go after the baby is born. FYI: Yes, in the beginning Anne wanted divorce before she found out her pregnancy. Ruan replied it’s not gonna happen as he doesn’t regret what he did to her, because of it he could have her as his wife. It’s obvious, otherwise he wouldn’t have given her a second look and married Emily by now. Anne asked him would he have married her if he wasn’t found out. Ruan actually hesitated to answer it, which gave me my answer as well. Back to that ‘beautiful’ scene, the last of the book. Ruan begs the mistress to take him back after Anne’s gone. WHAT? But of course she will, she’s born to do it! The mistress starts saying negative things about Anne like: she has no passion, she’s only doing her duty, that she should be grateful for this marriage, how dare that she isn’t etc., pretty obvious what her intensions were. WTF Ruan did? NADA! He didn’t say anything to the woman to stop her poisonous mouth, knowing that Anne was nothing of the sort but simply stand there listened to her and in turn, kept on whining she doesn’t love me wa wa wa! Give me one good reason why should she? Oh but Anne, our saint Anne forgave him because after all, wasn’t it her cue to say ILU back? The mistress goes out the door with a bitter smile but in my mind, to plan some advanced strategy because I simply saw Ruan is still open to the option. Don’t they share a history longer than Anne?

So I’m not surprised that I didn’t believe in their HEA, neither Ruan nor anything he said. Yes, he was pretty good at ‘demonstrating’ his affections, there were scenes I thought pretty intense but I felt nothing. I didn’t warm up to him. I hated Devon, was irritated at Emily; glad that there wasn’t any book for them because I would’ve been tempted to read that (since it’d been a series and I like to torture myself) and tear my hair out afterwards! It’s sadder that I was interested in the murder/mystery subplot and wanted to see something between Robert and Lucy. Lucy was featured less than any of her sisters so I wished to know more about her and Robert.
Overall, 3 stars.

Update: From CJ's website, Lucy and Thrale's book coming in 2013. A big YAY from me!!

[Misfit · Rating 1 out of 5]

The basic set-up: plain-ish spinster Anne Sinclair injures her ankle while she and her family are houseguests of some lord who is the BFF of the rakish Duke of Cynssyr. It's decided Anne needs quiet and laudanum for the pain, but the problem is there's a full house - the only unoccupied room is that of the not-yet-arrived to the party Cynssyr, so that's where they decide to put a doped up Anne. Cynssyr arrives in the wee hours when the household is abed, and heads straight for his room (he always stays in that room), and upon finding a woman in his bed assumes his BFF has pulled a prank and slipped a whore in for his pleasure. Despite her drugged state, Anne *cough* rises to the occasion (or should I say Cynssyr rises to the occasion?) and the two have passionate sex. Well, they are found out and there's not much to do but for Cynssyr to marry Anne and make the best of it - will he farm her out to the country, or will he fall in love with his mousy wife?

I'm generally not fond of Regencies and reformed rakehells, but a couple of friends whose opinion I value rated this highly so I was hoping for the best. Perhaps it was just me, but this book didn't work at all. The mystery of the missing/kidnapped women just came out of nowhere, and was so convoluted with so many players and suspects that I was completely lost. I was just praying for it to end. Then we get to the relationship between Anne and Cynssyr. This is supposed to be true love, fairytales and romance? Seriously? Even if you can get past the opening of him boffing her whilst she's practically unconscious (lol, she does come out of it enough to give him a blow job), that is not my kind of romantic partner - his main concern is when he's hot for sex he'll have it now - no waiting for the bedroom (hell, a couple of times they were right next to the bed and he still couldn't wait). I think the tally was against the wall, Anne standing up while he knelt and did *you-know*, from behind while she's holding onto the dresser (until they made it to the floor), back onto another table and finally in the garden. No slow tender love-making for this Duke. Pants down, skirts up and INCOMING! Wham, bam, thank you ma'am.

Not my idea of a romance and real love. Not even close.

[Jan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Original review October 2018: First book from this author for me, and I really enjoyed it. Her writing style is a little different from other HR authors I've read, and I like it. I also really liked the MCs, and some of the secondary characters too.

I agree there is some controversial material in this book. It was first written in 2002, and I wonder whether such a story would be written/published in our current climate, 2018. Possibly not. I can understand why some readers don't want to go there with this book, or why they give it a low rating or dnf. I have to say I was not aware of any of that when I started it. I'd seen some good recs and read a couple of positive reviews. I'm also trying out new (to me) authors. Once I started it I realised there was a controversial aspect to the story. Anne is 'ruined' in a non-con scene with 'Lord Ruin'. And I can accept that it therefore won't be for everyone.

But for me, in the context of the setting of 200 odd years ago, I found myself accepting what had happened, and from then on I was drawn into the story. I liked Cynsyrr, the hero, in spite of all. He knew he was a rake and had behaved badly, but to give him credit he accepted full responsibility for his actions and didn't try to weasel out of it or make excuses. There was some complexity to his character, and he genuinely loved and respected Anne.

I liked Anne too. A highly intelligent woman who had been 'hiding her light under a bushel'. She doesn't see herself as anything out of the ordinary, as she's somewhat overshadowed by her beautiful sisters. She considers herself a spinster, but unexpectedly finds herself married to one of society's most popular and sexy bachelors. I liked the way the author depicted the way these two intelligent and lonely people connected together so well and tumbled into love with each other.

There was also a bit of a mystery story, a whodunnit running alongside the love story. This was done quite nicely, with a few red herrings along the way, and a dramatic climax where all is revealed.

There is a quite a lot of sex in this book, mainly (but not exclusively) between the MCs. At times it was *almost* too much. But it was well-written.

Overall, I enjoyed my first Carolyn Jewel despite the controversial aspect, and I'm keen to read more by this author.

*Reread for December 2022 BOTM for Historical Romance Book Club, 'Forced Into Marriage' trope. I give 4 stars again :)

[Danielle The Book Huntress · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's been a while since I read this, but a friend asked for a review, so I'll do my best...

I picked this one up on impulse because I love the spinster heroine motif. I admit that Ruan isn't my ideal hero since I really don't like oversexed rake heroes much (with a few exceptions). However, this book really entertained me, and probably for very shallow reasons.

I have met few heroes who are as horny as Lord Ruan! My goodness. Even though this book isn't wall-to-wall sex scenes, I felt like the duke and Anne were having sex constantly, and not just in the bed, against any available object. In confess I liked this about the book...a lot! I'm all for married couples getting busy often in romances!

I give this book five stars because I appreciated the approach. I liked how Anne was a sweet woman, and out of her league, but she ends doing alright with Lord Ruan. He ends up loving her dearly and showing it, even though she wasn't his type and he did not want to marry but had to because he had compromised her. Some readers will not like how Anne and Ruan meet and end up having to marry. It was a bit eye-opening, but it didn't put me off the book. The mystery was good and kind of shocking in a way. But I liked the romance most of all.

Some readers won't enjoy this, because they might want something else in a book. But for a sweet, straightforward, sexy historical romance, I was a happy camper with this one.

And the immortal question? Did Lord Ruan cheat on Anne when he was in London? I don't think he did. I believe that he developed an acute case of "I am obsessed with one woman-induced impotence", which is what I wish all romance heroes would suffer for love of their heroines.

It's been a while since I read this, so my review is bare bones. But it's a good sign that I get a happy smile of remembrance when I think of this lovely little book. If I get a chance to do a reread, I'll try to do a better review.

Final verdict: I would recommend it!

[Lauren · Rating 5 out of 5]

6th Reread:
7/28/23

I still love this wacky book! I could have sworn I wrote a review on this book.🤷‍♀️

Short: This has the forced marriage trope. Some might have trouble with their first sex scene since the h was on drugs. H doesn't know. So the mix-up is why they have to marry

I love to see the handsome Ruan so in love with his spinster wife. I love it when the H falls so hard for the h 🥰. Ruan sees Anne as beautiful, smart, desirable, and can't seem to keep his hands off her.These two also have a great friendship. The problem is that Anne is scared. She doesn't believe that he could love someone like her or not move on to another woman later. To be fair, he doesn't have the best track record.

Ruan respects Anne so much that he asks for her help to solve a case of kidnapped girls. Here's the part that is unbelievable. A Duke, an Earl, a Viscourt, are investigating the case. Really? This is a book you have to just go with it.

The marriage and the mystery were done so well. The sex scenes were 🥵. Love or hate her , you have to admit CJ knows how to write great sex scenes.

This is a book I read every few years. When I'm in a slump and need this type of book.

[Preeti ♥︎ Her Bookshelves · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hmmm, all through I felt as if I was getting only the audio of an audio-visual show. Or as if the author expected me to already know about the goings-on, the characters and their background without actually explaining (like in a sequel) and I would get a rap on the knuckles if I asked.

Still I managed to finish this book (while I dnf-ed another very popular one of hers).
And it’s not bad per se. Nice development of a simple enough plot with the shotgun-moc trope. I liked the h, I liked the hot explosive chemistry and the sex-scenes are a bonus.
The Duke of sin/ Lord Ruin/ Insincere Cynssyr compromises (mild term that, will come back to it) a laudanum-ed bespectacled plain-sister spinster and gets caught in the act and so has to do the honorable thing. The h goes from militant ‘the-awful-man’ to a meek biddable yes-sirring wife! I don’t like a belligerent, confrontational h but neither can I stand a yes-woman doormat.

Other problems? Plenty! * Major spoilers*
Rape! And no repentance. He finds a woman sleeping/unconscious in his bed and calmly proceeds to take liberties and more. Even after he discovers she’s a virgin, he doesn’t bother wondering or stopping.

His obsession with her body beautiful versus her face/her character is crude. His mind had “long and slender legs, small waist and those lovely round breasts that sent heat directly to his groin.” on a loop!
I didn’t like him confiscating her glasses for the duration of a ball. God, how’s she supposed to see and socialize? It’s shown to happen once and she gets a headache. Later he finds the glasses cute and sexy but I didn’t care for this one insensitivity.

Then his repetitive comparison (favorably so but) of the h with other women – her incomparable sisters, his mistress, his former lovers – is again off-putting. He thoughts are forever on his mistress and the comparisons. “Hell, his dainty, fragile beauty of a mistress had never intrigued him like this.”
The initial mention of the H pursuing the h’s younger sister for marriage and vowing to melt the unresponsive young woman doesn’t elevate him either. As doesn’t his giving the sister the sobriquet of ‘the Angelic Sinclair.’ Compared to him not even recalling the oldest sister/h at all.

All HRs have ‘rakes’ and we generally ignore their immoral, adulterous behavior as it’s all part of the lionizing and bad-boy-ness, and mostly in the past. It’s the same here but I could not stomach it as all older women in the common social circle turn out to be his former lovers. I hate a H having affairs with married women as that poaches on a marriage. Experienced widows, mistresses are still okay (although sadly the ow's feelings are never taken into account).
This author’s Hs feel no compunction in bedding a mother and then pursuing the daughter for marriage. It’s so with this H and another one of her later ones (though that one does better in his own book). It left me quite nauseous.
So I think, compared to all this, mentioning that all three Hs in the series preferred another sister but end up with the said hs, is just minor detail.

Adding this to the unconscionable bedding/rape of the h, the 'H' completely falls in my estimation and even his easy falling in line and in love with the h didn’t help. He might be the proverbial tortured soul but some essential morals are inviolate and some lines should never to be crossed.

The suspense of the serial rapists is another irritant. It’s so apparent that it’s just filler material (like the h-H sex scenes) and I didn’t like the news of a woman getting raped every other chapter.

And it has that hazy treatment that makes me antsy. So many things and conversations are left incomplete, unanswered or muddled.
Like when the h asks a simple question in middle of his rambling/dissembling…
“You are kind, and I have not been. You forgive weakness. I never have.”
“What of Mrs. Forrest?”
“You are tolerant. I am not. …..”
He never answers. I trusted him (with her) at this point but an unequivocal NO at the right time helps.
Mrs. Forrest, btw, is his long-time lover/woman he almost married. She married another but continued being his lover. The lover he ‘gave up’ but still goes to meet as he confesses at the start of this conversation. He never answers the h’s question and the h also lets him get away with it.
And her own mixed feelings for another man don’t help either.

And the question whether it’s love or lust….isn’t answered satisfyingly. Though, this very lust is quite the USP of the book!

So, this round-and-round-we-go made me so giddy that I wanted to reach for a basin myself, just like the pregnant h does throughout the book.

[Izzah ꒰Duchess of Cabria ಇ ⭑✧ ᴏɴ ᴘᴀᴛʀᴇᴏɴ ✧ ⋆꒱ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Happy to say I still overall liked this one after a reread

The first time I read it, I was left with the feeling I should probably reread this one because I felt like maybe I read too fast and didn't absorb everything.
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🕮⋆˚࿔✎𓂃 𝐣𝐨𝐢𝐧 𝐦𝐲 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐦𝐲 𝐟𝐮𝐥𝐥 𝐫𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰
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(*double review, original + reread~)

[Jultri · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF 40 %. This book did not make a favourable impression from the start. The hero, Lord Ruan, who arrived at a house party intending to woo the spinster heroine's very young sister instead enthusiastally took the heroine's virginity. The heroine, Anne, was a less enthusiastic and active participant on account that she was practically rendered unconscious by laudanum following an injury. It was short of rape however because she was revived transiently enough to orgasm and give the hero some serious head service. Her brother-in-law walked in on them, and they were forced to wed, although only after Ruan tried to snake his way out of it by crudely justifying to her brother-in-law in her presence that he couldn't help himself given how great her legs and "tits" were. Classy and gentlemanly behaviour!

So, they endeavour to make the best out of their marriage with Ruan taking it to mean, he could hump his new and virtually virginal bride (missing hymen but also missing memory of the night of her lost virginity) against the wall without taking time out to prepare her adequately (aka foreplay) or to even bother to ensure her pleasure. Not very well done! He did acknowledge his lack of finesse, but did we read about him making it up to her? No, they did the deed here and there and everywhere and great mention of how much he enjoyed her body and her great tits, but whether she enjoyed herself, we had no idea. She seemed enamoured enough of him, but that be due to the fact that she was the perfect submissive doormat wife despite her so called intelligence and wit. She was more than happy to repeatedly "Yes Sir" his every request, which involves a lot of skirt lifting and bending this way and that. There is innocence and then there is stupidity as evident by the fact that she took inordinately long time to work out she was being sexually molested by a pervert, justifying his leering and body groping as accidental. When it finally dawned on her what had happened, she ran off to seek comfort in Ruan's arms only to find him cooped up in company of his mistress with Ruan audaciously annoyed that she did not knock first. In true doormat style, she apologised for disturbing them and told him it was perfectly fine and that she accepted he needed some "diversion from the dullness" of her. Where is your self-worth, woman?!! It turned out that Ruan was ending his relationship with his mistress, because inviting well-known OW to the ball (held in his wife's honour in their marital home) in order to farewell her was such a great tasteful idea. Now the coup de grace that ended this book for me was that in his subsequent conversation with his brother-in-law, Ben (married to Anne’s sister), who chided Ruan for his thoughtless behaviour towards Anne, Ruan never showed any remorse for his poor choices and actions. Ben, who hitherto had been a pillar of decency then proceeded to tell Ruan how desirable he thought Anne was, and how much he still enjoyed watching her and her long legs move and that he wanted to bed her from the moment he laid eyes on Anne, but was only stopped by the fact that he was already in love with her sister. Yes, huh? I had to read that a few times, and it still makes no sense to me except making me feel a like I needed a good soapy scrub.

Now in among all of the above, there is an obscure crime side-plot where the author throws in random little tidbits out of the blue, that left me thinking, did I miss something before that. Oh, and the shallow arse-herole asked her not to wear her glasses, never mind that she couldn't see clearly without them resulting in headaches.

I don't give too many one stars, but this whole book just felt really amateurish and unpolished. Worse, there were some parts that I found truly icky and offensive, and that is where my one star ratings come in. I am disappointed, because my previous book by CJ was great. I might brave another one from her, but I'm done with this series as the characters all appear quite amoral as supported by reviews by other readers.

[Luana ☆ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well well well. I was not expecting the Ted Bundy vibes. Not. At. All.
And that compromise? I have never read a book where the heroine was compromised so spectacularly. Everything working together to go so horribly wrong.

I enjoyed this book a hundred times more than her other book that I read this week, scandal. I enjoyed pretty much all characters.

Something that was not clear tho was the fact that if he cheated on her. Many reviews complain about that fact and i was paying close attention to that detail, I know he was alone with his mistress, I know the talk, but I did not really see any confirmation that he cheated on the heroine. He hurt her with just being in the same room with his mistress, but did he actually went to bed with her? It was unclear to me.

[Sara Reads (mostly) Romance · Rating 1 out of 5]

So I rarely dnf a book but I really couldn't do this anymore. The first scene of the book is the hero literally fucking the heroine while shes doped up on laudanum and while I get it, he had no clue and thought she was just a giggly happy prostitute clearly enjoying herself it was understandable but very VERY unpleasant to read. I am very good at taking into consideration the time and place these novels take place, and rape back then had a different definition than rape today. While it was clearly not a rape from his point of view, (and it wasn't! he wasn't a bad guy or a rapist at all, just super horny lmao) it was rape from her perspective.

How the fuck would you feel if you woke up and found out you weren't a virgin anymore, and couldn't even remember having sex? That shit is TRAUMATIC, and was hardly even addressed? I wanted to shake the heroine and say

WHAT THE FUCK GIRL WHY AREN'T YOU OUTRAGED ABOUT THIS??

Like, to know something drastic happened to your body when you weren't even conscious?? It was just such a ridiculous situation and very very CRINGY to read.

So I tried to move forward and forget about that unpleasantness, which was difficult cause this author did not have much going for her. The writing and plot weren't spectacular.

Then came the next few sex scenes



NOPE BITCH

NOT TODAY

So so SOOOO UNPLEASANT AND NOT EVEN FUN TO READ! THERE SEEMED TO BE NO PLEASURE FELT BY THE HEROINE. EVERY FUCKING TIME, HE RUTS ON HER LIKE A FUCKING ANIMAL, AND THEN GOES "im sorry love, you're just so fucking hot i cant think past getting my dick in there for all of 3 seconds before it's over"

yeah no

who knows, maybe later in the novel it gets better but the tone of this book so far is just depressing. I fast forwarded and im sure the sex parts were better later in the book, but some first impressions make the rest of the book irredeemable. I don't even want to read this book anymore,

If anyone thinks this book is worth it, please tell me but it would be really hard to convince me to continue

[Nabilah · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars rounded up to 3 stars (because I'm feeling generous).

I did finish this book (not a particularly long book, but it felt longer and that is not a good sign) because the storyline was compelling enough for me to continue. The premise was unique in where Ruan, the Duke of Cynnsyr, was caught with his pants down (literally) with Anne at a house party and were forced to marry. The thing is, Anne was doused with laudanum because she hurt her foot earlier in the day and was put into the duke's bedroom. They thought that the duke will not come back that day. So, Anne thought everything that happened was a dream (talk about consent). After they marry, Ruan realized that he has never felt anything like this until Anne. Anne, in return, was afraid of her feelings because of Ruan's reputation of being a rakehell. So, this was the main conflict between them. There is also a murder mystery and Ruan and his friends (Ben, Anne's brother in law and Devon, Anne's ex suitor) are in the thick of it. Some men have been kidnapping the young women of the ton and brutalized her and sometimes even murder the women. Sometimes, they would request for ransom money as well.

Ms. Jewel is a new to me author and I'm not exactly partial to her style of writing. It felt dispassionate. There were an abundance of bedroom scenes and these weren't explicit, but again, these didn't elicit anything in me. I also noticed that she isn't big on descriptions of the surroundings as well. It's all pretty general.

There were a lot moments where you have to suspend your disbelief. Suspending your disbelief is normal when it comes to reading fiction, but this book has too much of it. Ruan and his friends were in charge of finding the culprits, but why were they involved in the 1st place? I hardly think a duke would have time running around to play policeman unless this was personal. The reason wasn't given. It just is and that simply wasn't good enough. The culprits motivation wasn't properly explained as well. It just felt disconnected.

I couldn't properly warm up to Ruan either. Despite his reputation of being this great lover, he came across as a selfish lover. It seemed like he was only interested in his satisfaction. I could have done without the scene in the ending with his ex-mistress, Katie. He asked Katie to take him back after he divorced Anne because he thought that Anne hated him. It's Ruan being selfish again. Anne was a doormat when it comes to Ruan. She might not be a beauty compared to her sister, but she drew the eye. There was no scandal attached to her so I have no idea why she thought she is on the shelf.

The story is poorly executed and in my opinion, it could have been so much more. I don't think I'll be reading anything from this author again.

[Lady Nilambari Reads HR · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 Stars

- This was my first Carolyn Jewel. She has an interesting writing style, very passive and wry. This story packed a punch and made me want to stay with it til the end. But here's the thing, I read the whole thing with a frown.
- The focus kept shifting from the romance to the subplot.
- There were so many characters, some with their stories in place, it was confusing. And this is the first in the series?
- I felt utterly lost with the character backgrounds and couldn't shake the feeling that it was missing something.
- Ruan and Anne had great chemistry for sure, but who were they as individuals? Because of the rapidly moving plot, the romance wasn't allowed to settle. I guess I was looking for it to be more fleshed out.
- There were too many inner musings, but little conversation. Both of them were in awe of one another but the communication never went through.
- I liked that the author relied on Ruan's POV to convey the depth of emotion as Anne was a bit of a wimp.
- This was by no means a light-hearted story, as it had plenty of tough elements.

Honestly, I am confused about this story. One, because I cannot remember what I felt about it (I should go back to writing reviews as soon as I finish the book), and two, because I still feel it was incomplete somehow. It just needed something more, a bit of pizzaz.

[Mahima · Rating 2 out of 5]

What I could not bear is a husband who cheats and THEN gets jealous because his wife is 'befriending' other men.🙄

Plot was different but characters were below average! Lord Ruin, you're one of the worst MC I've ever had the pleasure to read.🤦🏼‍♀️

Anne, you're a great girl. But I wish you had more self confident.

[willaful · Rating 2 out of 5]

My first thoughts about this book were that it had a lot of promise but wasn't coalescing into a cohesive whole. My last thoughts were that it was just a hot mess. The plot was hard to follow, the writing was awkward, and I couldn't understand why Anne, who already had one desirable man in love with her, flatly refused to believe her husband's affection. There seemed to be a lot of missing background info that might have made sense of it all. Two stars mainly for him finding her glasses sexy.

[Mariana · Rating 1 out of 5]

I recently started watching the Netflix series Trump: An American Dream. Ruan is like Trump. Anne is no more likeable. Need I say more?

[Caz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Review from 2014

C- for narration / B- for content.

I was really pleased to learn, a couple of weeks back, that Carolyn Jewel was venturing into the world of audiobooks with one of her best known titles, Lord Ruin. I confess to having a bit of a soft spot for Ruan and Anne, even though I recognise that the story is unevenly paced at times, as this was one of the first historical romances I read.

Ruan Bettancourt, the Duke of Cynssyr (and yes, there are several ‘sincere’ puns) is a playboy and serial heart-breaker. But, as all such men must come to realise at some point, he needs to sow his oats less wildly and beget himself an heir, which of course means taking a wife. As Ruan is the most gorgeous man in the ranks of the ton, it’s natural that his eye would fall upon society’s most beautiful women, and he has the lovely Miss Emily Sinclair firmly in his sights.

Anne Sinclair, the eldest of Emily’s sisters, is not at all pleased by the idea of Emily’s being married off to a dissolute fellow like “Lord Ruin” and is determined to prevent the match.

It’s no secret to say that she succeeds in doing so in a rather unorthodox manner, and is more than ably assisted in her efforts by the man himself! Caught in flagrante delicto while Anne is under the influence of too much laudanum, she and Ruan have no alternative but a hasty marriage – something about which Ruan finds himself strangely content. He quickly discovers that Anne suits him both in bed (and boy, does he discover it! I think the couple does the deed on just about every available flat surface) and out; she is level-headed, intelligent and perceptive, just the sort of wife to suit a man such as he, who is actively involved in government and takes his duties as a peer of the realm very seriously.

Anne finds her opinion of her new husband undergoing a rapid reassessment. Having believed him to be nothing but a dissolute womaniser, she is surprised to discover that he is in fact a man of honour who does not shirk his responsibilities, and, as the book progresses, one who is still haunted by his military past.

The ‘compromised into marriage’ trope is one I particularly enjoy, and this aspect of the book works well. At the beginning of the story, Anne feels that she is destined to remain a spinster and has more or less made her peace with that, being content to watch her sisters make excellent matches and resigned to the fact that she is going to be the one to look after her father in his old age. Because she is ‘merely’ pretty where all of her sisters are acknowledged beauties, she hides a mass of insecurities, and it’s these which prove the greatest barrier for Ruan to overcome in their marriage. Anne is unable to believe that a man such as he, rich, handsome and powerful, who could – and did – have his pick of the most beautiful women in society, could possibly want her, a woman with no beauty, youth, or much else to recommend her. Once she begins to spend time with Ruan, Anne realises how easily she could lose her heart to him, and determines not to do so, steeling herself not to allow her emotions to become engaged. But because she is so busy trying NOT to fall in love with him, she fails to see how completely – and rather charmingly – besotted he is.

Despite the fact that the actions which led to his hasty marriage are ones which hardly cover him in glory, Ruan somehow manages to be a swoon-worthy hero; he’s complex, haunted by his past and honourable while at the same time having a bit of a ruthless streak. His wartime experiences may have caused him to harden his heart, but he is nonetheless able to recognise a good thing when he sees it and has the guts to put his heart on the line, even though he is well aware that his wife is unlikely to believe him.

As the story of a marriage of convenience, Lord Ruin works very well. I rather like stories in which the drop-dead gorgeous hero becomes hopelessly enamoured of a woman who is not, on the surface, one to whom he may have given a second glance under other circumstances. Given Anne’s deep-seated insecurities and Ruan’s tendency to use sex in lieu of verbal communication, their marriage has many problems to contend with, the working out of which would easily have been enough to sustain the entire novel.

But in addition to those issues, Ms Jewel has incorporated a sub-plot concerning the hunt for the killer of several young women in which Ruan and his friends are engaged. This element is less well-constructed and I feel it takes too much away from the development of the relationship between the protagonists. That said, though, the central romance is engaging enough and sensual enough to make it possible to enjoy the story on the strength of it, alone.

Kate McDermott is not a narrator I’ve listened to before, and while she certainly has potential, her narration here is badly flawed in many important respects which took me out of the story on a number of occasions.

Ms McDermott is American and has chosen to adopt a British accent for both the narrative and dialogue. Her accent is quite good, but as I have often found to be the case when American narrators adopt English accents, she sometimes sounds as though she is trying TOO hard, which leads to the un-naturalistic pronunciation of various words and/or letter groups. The most common error here is of words ending in “y” – body, very, happy, where the final letter is almost sounded “ay”, so we get “boday”, “veray” etc. and the name Mary sounds like “merry”. Ms McDermott also makes several glaring and sometimes painful mispronunciations, many of which are dead giveaways that the person to whom I’m listening is not English. One such happens within the first few lines, when the word “leisurely” is pronounced “leesurely”, whereas we pronounce it “lehsurely”. In terms of the painful, there is a discussion about prostitutes which pronounces them to be “Cypriots” instead of “Cyprians”, and I think the worst howler of all is when the word “Vauxhall” (whose famous Pleasure Gardens feature in a huge number of historical romances), is pronounced “Voh-hall” (i.e. imitating the French word “faux”) instead of “Vox-hall”, as is correct.

Ms McDermott does a decent job when it comes to character differentiation, and the dialogue is generally delivered at a fairly natural pace. But the narrative is rather slow, with lots of long pauses between words and phrases, and I’m not quite sure if this is due to inexperience or problems caused by the need to sustain the accent for long periods.

Lord Ruin is an enjoyable story, but I’m afraid I can’t recommend the audiobook, which is a great shame, as this is one of those books I’ve been hoping to see in audio for some time. I see from her website that Ms Jewel is now writing the stories of the remaining Sinclair sisters, and I’m looking forward to reading them. But I’m unlikely to want to listen to them if the same narrator is used for the audio versions.

[Ipshita · Rating 1 out of 5]

For most of the book, I tried to convince myself that Lord Ruan isn't(surely he isn't?) the most worthless, creepy and insincere hero I've ever come across. Even calling him a hero seems wrong to me. You can create a character who is absolutely immoral and sinful, but that character needs to become a better person by the end of the story for me to consider him a rightful hero.

But we have to witness his transformation to believe it, right? I wouldn't for a second believe that this type of transformation can come about in the last 5% of the story. I guess, what I really mean to say is this hero needs to do a lot of grovelling. A LOT. And he needs to get his crap together.

There're other such idiosyncrasies which made little sense to me. Like the way he talked of his numerous mistresses (all the time!), whatever that was between Anne and Devon and other repulsive things better left unmentioned. I still can't rid of the feeling that something vile is crawling up my neck.

[Lisa · Rating 1 out of 5]

It isn't even what Ruan did raping Anne while she was doped up and unresponsive or even that he's obsessed with her body.

It's that Anne doesn't react at all. She's practically date raped and she doesn't cry, be angry, feel violated, feel fear, have nightmares, become traumatized, express surprise or even trepidation.

She's told to marry her violater to save his career and she's like he's educated, has a mistress and loves her body so she'll be the dutiful and passive wife.

Even the passive girls know their lives aren't good. Anne just doesn't react at all.

[Petra · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved it. What a beginning of the romance. She is on laudanum and he is just horny.
But they really do make it work later. Sweet and sexy.

[daemyra, the realm's delight · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyable with well-written sex scenes. Also one of the best hero finds heroine in his bed scenes ever written.

I just finished the Sinclair Sisters and all the stories are starting to swirl together! All the stories feature a heroine whose reputation is at odds with who she really is, a hero who has difficulty seeing past her reputation but knows he is physically attracted to her, pater troubles, pugilists and dogs for humour! Oh and ALL the heroes are determined to be with one Sinclair sister but end up with another sister, like an incestuous game of musical chairs.

Also, I'm kind of over very conventionally attractive heroines believing that they are ugly and no one will ever want them.



So that's Anne.

She wears spectacles and her clothes don't fit her. What a gargoyle.

The sad thing is that is actually Ruan. He *literally* cannot put the name to the face, even though he has been courting Emily, Anne's youngest sister. And this all plays into why, when he finds Anne in his bed, his immediate thought is, aw Devon sent me a whore again!

What a guy.

For some reason, I thought Anne would be more feisty but I learned Carolyn Jewel does not write feisty heroines. They're all INCREDIBLY PATIENT with their heroes. In Lord Ruin, this is fine because Ruan is a good hero, meaning that he doesn't take so long like the other heroes to realize the Sinclair sister he has is awesome.

The main conflict then in Lord Ruin is Anne wondering if she can trust Ruan. Also, a murder mystery. But the conflict was interesting, at least the way Jewel tells it. There was something that resonated about Anne's dilemma, about whether she would be wise to give in to his seduction, wondering whether that seduction is genuine, or if it is long-lasting. But also lots of juicy other woman, other man stuff via Devon and Mrs. Forrest!

Worth a read.

[Yona Ceaser · Rating 3 out of 5]

I kinda liked this Ngl

An accidental pregnancy trope 👌🏾 however this one had a major controversy. Whether it was r@p3 or not.

In my opinion …I’m not to sure tbh.

So they are all in a house party of some sort, and the heroine breaks her ankle and she needs to be put in a private room, the only room available for that evening and that evening alone, is the hero’s bed room (they are all under the assumption that he will arrive in the morning) so they give her medicine to dull the pain (which also addles her mind) and they put her in the hero’s bed.

The hero arrives that’s evening, but really late, in fact it might have been early morning by then, probs 2am-ish. Anyways, he lets himself into the friends house and since it’s late he just goes to his room and doesn’t let anyone know he’s back (I think this is rather a natural and reasonable thing to do). So obviously he doesn’t know about the change in room arrangement and he arrives to see a woman in his bed.

And here the issue transpires

From the hero’s point of view, there was a woman in his bed (nothing unusual) and we are told that his friend usually gets him a woman for the night and puts her in his room, so this was nothing out of the ordinary for him. She is currently asleep (drugged) and he wakes her up. So obviously she under the influence and she doesn’t really know what’s going on, but she is communicating with him, he’s asking her Questions and she’s responding. I think he get the okay, to have sex, but since she’s drugged she doesn’t know what she’s agreeing to, and he obviously doesn’t know that she’s not a courtesan, and doesn’t know that she is one of the house guest and that she is drugged…so he does the deed.

But in the process, he finds out that she’s a virgin and he’s like ‘what the f*ck’ but what annoys me is that instead of stopping, he tells himself that ‘oh maybe my friend brought me a virgin courtesan or mistress to brush up on my skills for when I intend to take a wife’….or some stupid bull shit like that …idiot. So the idiot continues his lovemaking😓😓😓

So the moment he climaxes was also the exact moment the heoines brother-in-law walks in AND was also the moment the heroine passes out asleep. So through out the whole love making she was awake and responding to his touches but then she passes out just as he finishes.

So from the brothers point of view he walks in to see how his sister-in-law is doing, only to find her fast asleep whilst being f*cked by his best friend specifically at the finishing time of his climax….that makes the hero look so fucking badddddd. Gosh the horror. So it looks like the hero is making love to a drugged and unconscious house guest., so yeah he looks like a r@pi$T😵‍💫😵‍💫😵‍💫

So in the morning the heroine wakes up and doesn’t remember shit, she only thinks she had the wildest dream of having sex with a handsome guy….only to come down stairs to find the dream was a reality and that she is to be married in the evening …..bless her. Coz truly she could be pregnant…and well….she was. She didn’t want to get married I don’t think or she lost all hope of being marriageable at the age of 29 and was content to be a spinster, but now she’s a duchess …😳.

And her fathers a dickhead about it aswell, I think he manages to blame her for what has transpired even though it wasn’t really her fault…no it wasn’t her fault at all!

So yeah they get married and live happily ever after …i think I there was some mystery solving background case in the book…but yea

[Maureen · Rating 4 out of 5]

New Review:I re-read this novel as part of a series challenge. I originally gave this 4 stars and now revised it to 3.5. The reason being, I found parts of the story disjointed from scene to scene. I wasn't really sure if I missed something or not. The character development was good. All the males were well rounded in the book, the females especially Anne were well developed, her sisters just a glimpse until a scene with Emily near the end of the book. I would say Ruan and Anne's love story was the main story and the underlying story of the ruination and abuse of the women assaulted cruelly and some death's occurring was secondary until the final scene, when there is a rescue. The first scene where Ruan sleeps with Anne not knowing her identity was the best one of the entire book. After reading that I'm sure that is why I gave the book a 4 star rating the first time around. It truly is the only thing I remembered, from the first time I read it.

Original Review:
BOTM for HRBC. I loved this book. Lots of lust, passion and finally love. There is a violent murderer of women involved and the MC H Duke of Cynsser aka Lord Ruin and his friends plus his wife the Duchess ( Anne) work together to solve the mystery. Insincere Cynsser beds Lady Anne in his friend Devon’s house thinking she is a whore a gift from Devon. Lady Anne was injured and the family put her in Ruan Cynsser room as he wasn’t expected until the morrow. She was drugged (laudanum) for her pain and thought she was dreaming. The family discovered him in bed with her and he did the right thing and marries her the next day after procuring a special licence.
The Duchess spends the first three weeks at his country estate three hours away. She finds herself pregnant and he moves her to London. He falls in love with her and she is guarding her heart as she is already close to falling for her. Because theirs was a forced marriage neither of them expect love. Anne had hoped Devon B Ryan’s best friend would propose as they loved each other but her father didn’t want her to marry him. Cynsser was courting her sister Emily and he had a mistress Katie Forrester before they were wed. They each had their worries, jealousy, doubt and trust issues and feelings to work through. When they made love they were honest and in this book there was a lot of sex. I enjoyed the characters, the mystery and the relationship between the MC. I am looking forward to reading the rest of the series.

[Debby *BabyDee* · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've never had the opportunity to read any novel from Ms. Carolyn Jewel as this was a first listen, I truly enjoyed it. So far this year, I've been listening/reading many new to me authors, some hits and some misses but I don't think I've DNF'd them.

I like Anne the heroine. Athough she was not a belle of the ton, she had an inner beauty, intelligence and her on convictions that I like very much in her character. She's seen to this ready as an ordinary person with a mind but sometimes overlooked due to the beauty of her sisters. She's a diamond in the rough and I for one was happy that Cyssyr saw that beauty. I liked how the author joined both MCs together into something that truly became love for one another.

The intimacy was very prevalent (a lot of sex between the MCs) that it almost became a bit overwhelming and also a bit of mystery thrown into the dramatics of the story. Overall, I thought Ms. Jewel's story was nice and I would entertain more by her.

4-Stars

[Sammy · Rating 2 out of 5]

The story never engaged me because the heroine was one I really could not understand. The author failed to write enough of the heroine's internal thoughts on the page and provided to much insight with the hero to the effect that the hero seemed self-centered and weak and the heroine distant and without any will to reject any of what the hero puts her though which is a lot. He was absolutely cruel to her and only thought about his own pleasure especially during the sex. He had no respect for her and I had no respect for him. And the straw that broke this camel's back was there was absolutely no wooing. If I didn't know better I would have thought that this was written by a guy.

[Caz · Rating 3 out of 5]

3-and-a-half-stars, really. I liked it, but there was something about it I can't quite put my finger on that stops me from giving it 4 or 5 stars. It was well-written and there was an interesting sub-plot about there being a serial-killer/rapist on the loose; the characters were well-defined and the sex-scenes were hot, but still, there was something about the writing, perhaps, that meant it didn't quite gel for me.

That said though, I did enjoy it and would definitely consider a re-read sometime.

ETA: A more detailed review (which is of the Audio edition) can be found here.

[Ruth · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you like angst-ridden, devastatingly gorgeous, over-sexed, wicked, wicked, naughty, naughty heroes paired with over-looked, sensible, steel-spined heroines, then this book is for you. Throw in a really quite engaging element of suspense, and it's a fabulous read.

I really appreciate it when publishers and authors make older books available in kindle format, and I could personally kiss whomever decided to market this book electronically!

What I liked about this one:

- The hero - he's just great. I'm a total sucker for heroes who are complex, bit-of-a-bastard, duty-bound, angsty, but ridiculously attractive, and the hero in this book is all that. I like that our first, and second, impressions of him are so strong, remain true, but also disguise a more subtle and complex character, and I like that although we get to know him better, he remains true to himself.

- The heroine - she's also extremely interesting. Her impossibly low self-esteem gets pretty grating, but that is, of course, the point. She's highly intelligent (I would suggest that in this the hero and she are very well-matched), confident, competent, but surrounded by family more beautiful than she, and feels inferior in this one respect only. It just made it so real to me that she only has this one blind-spot, which becomes so significant in her relationship with the hero.

- The suspense bit - normally when there's suspense in HR, it's kinda lame, just there to move the plot along, and, yes, there is an element of that, but there were so many possibilities of who the perpetrator was that I honestly didn't really know until the end.

- The deep stuff - for a HR, this book tackled some pretty deep stuff. Like, can you really love someone if you don't also love yourself? And how do you move beyond coveting your lover's physical perfection?

- The start - holy crap! This books starts well! There are a whole cast of fairly well-defined characters, and what the hero does to the heroine at the beginning is pretty damn grim. OK, he does redeem himself (a bit), but it makes you feel so hard for the heroine.

What I didn't like so much:

- Some of the writing didn't flow so well for me. It's hard to put into words what I had a problem with, but it didn't read as smoothly as it could have, or the writing wasn't as lush or fluid as it could have been. I have a feeling this was a matter of style, although I know that this author's style developed, since I had no such problems with Scandal.

- I know this sounds a bit daft in a HR, but there was so much sex in it. Every other page, the hero and heroine were at it like bunnies, which is lovely, but got a bit much TBH. OK, so I got that the hero can't keep his sweaty paws off the heroine, I got that, but, geez, can't you let them get one decent night's sleep? I'm convinced that they didn't actually get more than about 4 hours sleep in any one night, and well, I just don't buy it.

So, great plot, great hero and heroine, style was a bit jarring at times, but a good 4 stars.

[Mitzi · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a delight to read a romance novel that doesn't make you wait till 70% before the sex scene....The love making starts off from the get-go and the hero (Cynssyn) keeps coming back for more all they way through the book...I loved it!!! This one if a keeper!!! They are forced to marry after being caught in a compromising situation. He didn't want to marry (especially a spinster)...and she thought she loved another. Yet once they are married, he is mystified by his ease of talking to her about anything/everything and it's fun to watch him fall in love with her. She does the typical....he can't love me because of x.y.z....and although that's a bit annoying, it doesn't overtake the story. I thought it was a Very Good Book!!!

[Georgiana · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just a note to say, upon my (not first) re-read today (5/2020), I really like Lord Ruin. I think my fellow romance readers who dislike it haven't paid close enough attention to what goes on in the book. Lord Ruin is a tiny bit 'bodice ripper' in the unlikely start of the relationship and some other drama. But the seemingly haughty hero (there is a story attached to his heartbreaker ways but it's not featured prominently in the plot) comes to love the heroine, passionately. It's fun to read.

[Wollstonecrafthomegirl · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is more like 3.5 stars but I'm rounding up because I have a Jewel soft spot. 

I kind of have to start with the sex because, oh boy, is there a lot of it. It starts with the hero taking the heroine's virginity in about the first 10% (she's drugged up on laudanum - he doesn't realise). I mean, the average romance has maybe(?) three 'scenes', this one has tons (I wasn't formally counting but in the region of 10 to 15?). And Jewel is good at sex. Despite their number they all worked well for me, undoubtedly, for some, it's going to be gratuitous for the sake of it.

Leaving aside the sex, how was the book? I enjoyed it, but I'm not exactly sure why, because in a lot of ways it was lacking. 

I'll start with what I know I liked. Lord Ruin. Or Ruan to use his silly given name. Or Duke Cynssyr (I'm not sure Jewel understands quite how titles work. It doesn't bother me, but I know I'm not alone in this). He was a well fleshed out character. I understood him and his motivations. His affection for Anne and his substitution of love for sex was nicely done. His relationship with his friends was well handled. The dialogue and the setting is period appropriate.

There were some things that went unexplained and perhaps warranted proper exposition - Ruan's involvement in the government and the reason for his playing the part of detective in relation to well-bred women going missing. It's fine, I went with it, but I think Jewel trusts the reader to come to the correct conclusions and I'm far from certain I did. 

And that's kind of the problem with this book in a nutshell. Everything is underplayed, under explained and (to an extent) under characterised. Perhaps Jewel's being terribly clever and subtle and it's passing me by, but to me, I needed to know more about everyone, to get a better sense of who they are and to know more about their lives, their motivations.

Anne, the heroine, I mean, I liked her, I'm just not sure she really had any personality, bar feeling less attractive than her sisters and distrusting any man who tried to make her believe otherwise. She desperately wanted not to fall under Ruan's spell because she was afraid to have her heart broken. She gets more ballsy as time goes on but I was still left with this sense I was being told about her rather than having it shown. I felt like I got to know more about Emily (another of the Sinclair sisters - finally getting her own book later this year!) in the short moment of action at the end of the book than I'd learnt about Anne throughout.

In spite of that, I really liked reading this book. I liked reading about the love story growing from the marriage of convenience. There's serious heat between them and, as I said, great sex. The mystery about the disappearing girls was clumsily introduced and woven in but it did hold my attention and I followed the dramatic ending with interest. 

I am looking forward to Devon and Emily's book (I've already read the second in the series pre-goodreads, perhaps I'll revisit and review). 

Strange one this, sort of more than the sum of its parts for me, which is usually how I feel about Jewel. 

[Fiona Goodman · Rating 4 out of 5]

3 1/2 stars. Closer to four than 3.

A little slow paced, but overall a decent love story. It was a little uneven in places, but I really liked the hero. I got a little frustrated because Ruan (Ruin) was never given the benefit of the doubt by his wife or friends that he could actually care about Anne. He was consistent in his treatment of her even though the marriage started out in an unconventional way to say the least.

I think the characters were drawn well and there the author seemed to have a good sense of historical accuracy (I am certainly no expert however). There seemed to be a darkness to the book as far as atmosphere which added to the mystery of the story.

I gave the book 3 1/2 stars because it really dragged in parts for me as well as how the heroine seemed kind of weak and did not stand up enough for herself. Actually, I found it hard to understamd what sexy and passionate Ruan saw of her in the first place.

I was torn between loving the book in parts and not. I never felt I hated it so that's a good thing. I do think it is worth reading because I can see how others could have very different opinions of the book.

The side characters were really interesting however. Especially Anne's sister Elizabeth. Now this was a spirited heroine I would like to read more of her story. We only really get to know her at the end of the book.

One thing that really bothers me is that this book is listed as an "Erotic Romance". It is a little racier than others but certainly not more than some that are deemed to be regular romance novels. This is certainly not a Maya Banks or Shayla Black and I think some would be disappointed if they are looking for that and others would be turned off because they may think the book only has graphic sex to offer. It really isn't that graphic, but it's not Georgette Heyer either.

What drew me to the book in the first place was the end of the first chapter "Little did he know that at the end of two weeks he would be madly in love with her" probably not a direct quote.

Read the book for Ruan he is worth it alone. The mystery is not bad I really wasn't sure who the bad guy(guys) were until the end and that in itself is rare for romance novels. Almost Loved it but liked it a lot.