Tempting the Vicar by Liana LeFey Series: The Wicked Waywards #2
Published by Entangled Publishing on January 17, 2022
Genres: Fiction / Romance / Historical / General, Regency Romance
Pages: 356
Format: ARC
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After his twin brother pulls a foolish prank, Reverend Daniel Wayward's life is now decidedly complicated. With his family, his parish, and even his reputation at risk, there's only one way to avoid utter ruin—by swapping places with his rakish, wicked twin. And the second Daniel steps foot into his brother's worldly and sinful life in London, he's completely caught by temptation of the most enticing, green-eyed kind.
Miss Olivia St. Peters knows the son of the duke is a dangerous fellow, but something in those hooded, hungry blue eyes makes her blood sing with pleasure. She's determined to have this Wayward noble, no matter what Society—or even her father—says about the match. And if that means playing with fire, she'll gladly burn...
The more Daniel resists the oh-so-inviting charms of Olivia, the more determined she is to have him. Now he's caught between his vows of faith and the lure of sweet temptation. And the only thing standing between his heart and his immortal soul is one unforgivable deception...
This was a new to me author, and the second in the series which worked as a standalone. The story revolves around a twin swap/masquerade, which is normally my jam, but had some issues that made it a harder read for me.
Daniel is a devoted vicar, who has pledged his life to his faith and celibacy after a trauma in his youth. This is never resolved in a way that makes sense to me, so that was disappointing, but it did help to give an otherwise pious character some depth. Overall, he was likeable although not, at least for me, lovable. I will explain why in a bit.
Olivia is the daughter of a pirate-turned-privateer who has amassed great wealth. Although this has bought entrée into the Ton, it hasn’t completely erased the prejudice. When she meets Lord Devlin Wayward, she is head over heels because she feels he sees her.
This is what makes what follows super confusing for me as a reader.
Lord Devlin tries to damper her interest, and while on a holiday to visit family pulls a prank that means he and his twin have to swap places. Daniel is given two missions: seal the deal with Olivia’s father on a business venture and repel her interest.
He shows up in London only a bit different, and Olivia is still in hot pursuit. Daniel finds himself attracted to her, despite his best intentions, and a dance ensues.
So here are the two things that were problematic for me that might be for other readers: 1) the swap continues until the last quarter of the book, with no reveal and some raising of stakes 2) what Olivia loves about Daniel is either super shallow or a lie, because he is pretending to be his brother the whole time. If what she loves is that he sees her for who she really is, is her love based on anything but a mirror? And if they were truly in love, wouldn’t he feel compelled to confess all the moment he knew real feelings were involved? And even though he gives excuses to Olivia (all the stories were mine, just from my brother’s POV), did he really let her know who he was? She fell in love with this entrepreneur black sheep type, not a retiring country vicar.
The ending did have a nice enough resolution, although it still was a little eyebrow raising on the probability factor, but hey, who am I to judge? I don’t want to spoil too much in case you do read, but let’s just file this in the opposite’s attract and I guess love can change you categories.
There was one intimate scene in an otherwise fairly hands off book. There are some adult themes and language, but no violence.
Overall, I think the premise was interesting but just went a bit too far in execution to be satisfying as a romance for me. However, if twin swap is your jam, and you love a naughty vicar, then this may be your jelly.
For one intimate scene and adult subject matter (mistresses, prostitution, gambling).
*I received a copy of this book via Netgalley. No other compensation was provided.
