Liana De la Rosa: To Tame a Scandalous Lady

In the wake of a fire that decimates his racing stock, Christian Andrews, the Marquess of Amstead, struggles to keep his family’s stud farm from slipping into ruin and painstakingly rebuilds the program. When one of his prime stallions is injured, he notices his new assistant trainer has a special way with the horses. As talented as the trainer is, once he realizes he is a she…and a very beautiful, spirited she at that…he should sack her before scandal breaks. But it’s only weeks before the high stakes race he’s counting on to build back his fortune, and Flora should be by his side for the win.

Miserable under the weight of the ton’s expectations, headstrong Lady Flora Campbell laments her privileged life in London. Embracing her dream of working with racehorses, she disguises herself as a lad and slips away to learn as much as she can from England’s premiere expert, Christian Andrews, never thinking of the scandal she courts but the glory to be had.

Although she develops a tendre for the dashing marquess, she can never let on that she’s not only a woman, but the daughter of a duke…

Off to a bit of a slow start, with a lot of exposition in dialogue, we are transported into a few months into the future after the first chapter. Flora has successfully pulled off her conversion to a young man and obtained her dream job training horses and learning from the masters at Lord Amstead’s stables. We pick up when his lordship and Flora, disguised as a man named William Grant, meet.

Flora is an independent woman who has spent much of her life at the family home in Scotland working with the horses. She is beautiful but ambitious, and would rather be a spinster than forced to marry and give up her dreams of raising champion race horses. Flora is talented, having a gift for understanding horses and their needs and is a great fit for the team at Amstead’s stables.

Trouble brews for her, however, when Lord Amstead finally arrives home with a house party in tow. Flora is immediately attracted to the taciturn, handsome and often intense gentleman.

I found Amstead a bit tougher to pin down. He was obviously driven to restore his family’s former glory and fortune, but other than that he often seemed a bit two dimensional. He also seemed confused about asserting his power…he would notice staff was slacking and internally grumble but not follow through. This was a missed opportunity, in my opinion, to make him a stronger character and demonstrate his knowledge, skills and abilities. It was hard to believe a man who had grown up dedicated to the stables would take a do nothing attitude towards some of his staff.

This is a novel that has a lot of talk about horses, horse training and horse racing. I am not a horse person, so I did find myself skimming those bits. But if you love horses, you are in for a treat.

Once Amstead discovers William is a woman, mutual attraction and interest begins to develop between the two to steamy conclusion. There is some villainy, in the form of blackmail, thrown in to keep the suspense ramped up before climax and HEA conclusion.

This is third in a series but works well as a standalone title.

This is a sex positive book with heroine revealing early on that due to her determination not to marry she has had several discreet liaisons and is no longer a virgin. I thought the chemistry between the two MCs was believable and De La Rosa kept the tension building throughout the first half of the book.

Overall, an enjoyable masquerading story with a new to me author that I will look out for in the future. I recommend strongly for horse lovers, and also for readers who like a good masquerade historical romance.

5 Stars 4.25 out of 6 A would-be horse trainer masquerades as a young man but finds herself drawn to her Marquess boss