When a scoundrel tries to tarnish a young widow’s reputation, a valiant Earl tries to repair the damage — and mend her broken heart as well….
A bit of a priggish hero and a strong, smart heroine are brought together by a brother relying on an old friendship to salvage his family’s reputation. Catherine is a widow with a little girl living with her landed gentry brother and younger sisters, when a vicious rumor starts that she is a hoochie mama. Naturally, its totally baseless, but everyone starts shunning the family as a result. Enter the hero, who happens to be in the area on business and pleasure.
I had never read Allison Lane before, but always on the hunt for PG rated Reg Rom, I gave it a whirl. Its a unique plot and fairly strongly supported…the H/h are simply lacking the kind of chemistry to make it a re-readable Reg Rom.
Apparently, a part of a triology, The Notorious Widow shows us how devastating a vicious gossipmonger can be if his influence is above reproach. The villain is a bit over the top, but its also got that element of realism that lends itself to pondering what ifs. I can’t even imagine being persecuted by malicious gossip and how very real it could ruin a family–but I suppose these sorts of things happen even today with cyberbulling.
From that perspective, I liked the book. The problem was it just wasn’t very romantic. Our hero is reluctantly attracted to the heroine, and as a stalwart virgin (and normally I love those tortured virgin heroes) he throws himself in to helping to clear her name. However, rather than showing us how this leads to love, I was left at the end of the book feeling like he was still just lusting and had given up combatting the lust.
There is also Catherine’s sister who everyone thinks will be a good match for Rockhurst, the hero, and stalks him to that end despite his many rebuffs. That took a bit away from the plot for me, I guess it was meant to show how irresistible Rockhurst was?
Regardless, it fizzles out in the romance department and is carried by its interesting examination of how rumors and accusations can ruin lives.
3.75 out of 6 Not much romance, but an interesting subject.
| Content Rating/Heat Index | |
|---|---|
| Mature Content |   |
| Some talk of lightskirts, mistresses, etc | |
| Intimacy | |
| Not much. | |
| Violence | |
| Some descriptions of murder. | |
| Overall | |
|---|---|
| A clean read that is more of a look of gossip's impact than romance. | |
I like the story and the others of the trilogy. I have reread them many times. Allison Lane’s stories are romantic enough for me. I fully believe each couple will do well together.
There are books out with more sexual tension but many of those make me wonder whether or not the hero will begin wandering when his wife is sick or heavily pregnant or in any way unable to heat up the sheets. I fear many authors have replaced romance with sex.