The Sinful Nights of a Nobleman

The Sinful Nights of a Nobleman Jillian Hunter Grade: B Sensuality: Hot While The Sinful Nights of a Nobleman is not my favorite Jillian Hunter romance (those would be Indiscretion and Fairy Tale), it's a funny and sexy read that helped me get through the boredom of being in bed last month sick with pneumonia.

This is another book I first mentioned in an ATBF column last month. Though I didn't like it as much as I liked another of Hunter's Boscastle series - The Seduction of an English Scoundrel, it nonethless earns a strong "B" grade from me, and an unqualified recommendation.

All of the Boscastle men may be considered rakes of the first degree, but their allegiance to each other is famous/infamous, and, of course, once they fall in love, they're the penultimate in reformed rakes. Lord Devon Boscastle most assuredly fits the bill. Why, some years ago he refused to play along when Jocelyn Lydbury's father, Sir Gideon, tried to betroth his daughter to him. Sir Gideon took this rather badly, even taking it out on his daughter.

At a house party attended by Devon and Jocelyn, she is proud that she was able to flirt with Devon without showing the devastation she feels on the inside all this time later. But her mind is occupied by the likelihood that her beau will propose at some point during the house party. Jocelyn receives a letter inviting her to a rendezvous - as does Devon. She assumes she'll get her proposal and he thinks he'll finally bed the delicious widow he's been after. Unfortunately, both letters were forged and the two end up together, in a very compromising position, and are forced to marry.

As far as European Historicals go, this is a fairly standard premise, but Hunter writes with such wit and aplomb that her characters always stand out. Underneath his rakish tendencies lies a man who won't let a man hit a woman. His rakish tendencies, though, make him what he is: a devastatingly handsome and sexy man whom Jocelyn happens to love.

As for Jocelyn, she is not the mousey sort that Devon believed her to be. No marriage of convenience for her; while at the altar she threatens to kill him if he's unfaithful. Her father was a serial cheater, so when the papers later intimate that he was unfaithful after leaving her bed, she believes the worst. Devon, who was horrified by the look on his wife's face when she confronted him with the story, leaves his home determined to find out who has maligned him so he can prove his innocence. Later, when Jocelyn is accused of infidelity, his first thought is to protect her reputation. It's not that he doesn't believe she could attract another man's attentions because he wants her all the time, but he knows she's honorable.

As the story progresses and it becomes clear to the reader that Devon loves Jocelyn even though he won't cop to it, the mystery sub-plot of who was behind the letters - and later bringing lies to the tabloids - becomes more prominent. But it never overpowers the romance, partly because the other Boscastles play such a large role. Between them and Devon's staff, the two are constantly getting reinforcement as to the others' feelings, all in a clever and witty fashion. There's a lot of one-upping yet funny dialogue as the rivalries between Boscastle men are further reduced as they help Devon solve the mystery.

This book almost earned the same B+ as TSOFES did last December. The love scenes are terrifically fun and sexy, but Hunter's choice of words in one of them put me off to such a degree that the B+ became a B. For some reason, referring to a woman's genitalia as a "slit" icked me out enough to lower my grade for the entire book. Weird, I know, but it knocked me out of the story.

I've got several other Boscastle books TBR, but like Garwood and Quick, it's best not to read them too close together. I don't know that I'll wait for another year to read one, but when I do, I'll write about it here.

TTFN, Laurie Likes Books

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