Feeling Peckish – Ruined By A Rake by Erin Knightley

rake Who doesn’t love a rake? I know for me good guys do finish last. I need a man who is unrepentant and likes naughty, dirty fun times. The more playful, inappropriate and charming the better. Nicholas Norton might be a couple years too soon for me to feel he is ripe enough to be plucked from the scoundrel tree but I can’t help but be tempted by his devil may care smirks and flippant remarks.

It is the rogue who deflects to protect while needling to get a rise that makes my heart flutter. When he masters that he is on his way to raising the hackles of not only me but his match and then bedding that woman who he will have to gentle as if she were a wild beast is not far behind. What Nick Norton seems to have known even as a small boy and on first meeting with Eleanor Abbington was the beast inside her just needed to be pet one step forward and five steps back. A dance he mastered young and well.

When Eleanor Abbington’s family married into Nick’s it was a day that would live forever in infamy. The bratty new cousin she acquired acted shy and ill at ease until she was forced to greet him to the family with a kiss then ill mannered player managed to get her to land one on the lips with a quick turn of the head. They were just children but it was dislike from the word “go”. Throughout the years his bad behavior and teasing never ceased, so when he arrives home just in time to witness Eleanor’s uncle prancing her around like a prized calf at an auction, his concern and newly formed manly body has her all out of sorts. He is the boy she has always known and a man she has never seen before. His protecting her and being an ally is bringing to surface feelings that she fears may have been there all along. He’s always been a devil and she is unsure if he is playing on her side or meaning to mock her.

Now, I have to say… I don’t know why young heroes always make me feel as if something is wrong. It could be that I was indoctrinated at a young age into the Historical Romance world many books had older male heroes and younger males now feel awkward. Historically speaking, men married young so Nick was of a common age to marry and this story was more than not, very realistic. Still, to me I think things like, ‘How will this marriage survive when he hasn’t sown his wild oats?’ A ridiculous question because this is fiction and Nick might have oated all the camp wenches and planted a field of wheat while he was being a soldier. I don’t know if this is a problem for me or an issue for the story itself. I do know that I loved Nick and that should be all that matters, doesn’t love save the day? My husband is nine years younger than me (I think. Crap, after 14 years I never even get his birthday right. Shameful that I can’t do the math to figure out how much younger he is but math is not my thing). I began dating him when he was a year more than legal and he had no fields planted to harvest thankfully, so it is a double standard and a half that I cry foul on Nick. Thankfully my hero had no wheat for me to raise. I am not a very good miller and I fear what might have come of bread were it in need of being kneaded, raised and baked by me. About the only thing I can do is eat it and that is a disturbing thought all on it’s own.

Returning to program already in progress:

The love story is simple and charming. Despite the dastardly uncle who really is a villain and the singularly biggest historical douche canoe of his time, I would say that the read is pleasant and will give you warm feelies and make you think of tea and cookies. Nick will make you think of kisses and bottom pinches. The cover makes me think of Victoria Alexander and that makes me want to read The Effington Series again! It’s been years and years. I recommend this if you liked that series or if you have a soft spot for Julia Quinn and Courtney Milan.

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Scandalized By A Scoundrel Synopsis:

In all his years in the army, Lord Gabriel Winters never once described his opponent as beautiful. But when he finds himself staring down the barrel of Miss Amelia Watson’s pistol, it’s the only word that comes to mind. Despite her clear distrust of him—and not to mention his own determination to avoid English women at all costs—Gabriel is more than intrigued by his friend’s bold neighbor.

Amelia has plenty of reasons to distrust strangers, and the broad-shouldered, devilishly handsome viscount deserves no exception. But when he challenges her to lay down her weapon and learn to fight in a new way, she finds herself capitulating. He may be a scoundrel, but he’s also the first person in years to look at her without the blasted pity she hates so much.

Though the lessons start out innocently enough, the heady pull of attraction soon gets in the way. They’re as incompatible as water and gunpowder, so why is she suddenly looking forward to the thought of being . . . Scandalized by a Scoundrel?

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