Your Wicked Ways

Fun conclusion to the Duchess Quartet. After mainlining all four books, I'm thinking I need to take a break before I run out of James' titles. It's been nice to take a break from my regular reading and discover a new author to love, but my pile of library books keeps getting bigger. The Essex Sisters series just may be calling my name, however.... ( )

A fun resolution to the series. Helene and Rees are probably the most interesting couple in the series and James gave their story a fair resolution. It was also nice to see a favourite character from another series putting in an appearance and playing a key role. ( )

Helene, the Countess of Godwin, has been married to her husband for over ten years. When she met him she was young and believed herself in love with him. They eloped knowing it would be against her parents wishes. It seemed to Helene that their marriage was doomed from the start. Since she found no pleasure in sexual encounters with her husband at the beginning only found pain, they started to drift apart. Now ten years later, Helene wants something she yearns for, a child. However when she goes to ask her husband for a divorce he denies her. Rees, The Earl of Godwin is a rake through and through. He is a scoundrel and has had many illicit affairs outside of his marriage. He is content with having a wife in name, and having passions in the flesh with other women with which he has no attachment to. When Helene asks him for a divorce, he is blunt with his answers, having no compassion for his wife's desires or wants in having children. Helene eventually leaves, after a long discussion that proved hopeless. So while with a friend out shopping one day, she decides that she needs a change. She wants to have a child no matter the circumstance in which the child is conceived. So she comes up with a plot, that will help her achieve such a goal. She cuts her hair ( knowing her husband loved her long hair ) and she buys new clothes, and in all appearances is a changed woman, since she is planning to entice a man to her bed. At the ball in which she will begin her plot, she comes face to face once more with her husband who knows of her plot, and makes her a offer she can't refuse. That he will be the one to help her conceive the child she so desires, but she has to come live with him for one month, in his town house where his current mistress is also living. Even though Helene wishes she could back off, she wants a child above the sake of her own pride. So she goes along with this scheme, and finds a passion and sensual delights that she has never encountered.

Its been quite some time since I have had the chance to read anything from Eloisa James in quite some time. I love the circumstances in which Helene and Rees are brought back together once more. At first they fight and argue quite often, and at time act childish to say the least. But as time progress, their attitude toward one another gentles and thus we start to see a flaming passion that rises between the two, one that they didn't even know existed. Rees, although I thought his character seemed very rude and insufferable at times, he also had some higher moments of course. There were times that he was a handsome, and caring husband toward Helene. Throughout the book you see him soften his attitude and become the true hero of the book. Helene, just sparked my interest from the first page. Helene of course, wants to have a child, after seeing her friends having babies of their own. She craves one more than ever now, and even though she seems to despise her husband that starts to change for him. For all their tense moments and heated arguments, there is also a tender love that blossoms between the two. It definitely will have you flipping page after page, wondering what is going to happen next, and when are they going to admit how much they love each other. This was a tender love story, and one that I am grateful to have gotten my hands on. Now I would like to read the rest of the series, having seen a couple of the other characters from other books, I am eager to hop to it!!! ( )

Fairly good conclusion to the series. I liked Helene and Rees's relationship. A little too complicated with too many characters and plots. ( )

Sexy and fun. James has a fondness, it seems, for established couples, married for years, to fall in love, for real, the second time.

Helene and Rees are one of these couples. Married very young and recklessly (they eloped after only a month of knowing each other, I think), after ten years, Helene desperately wants to have a child, but since she and Rees live in separate houses, and he refuses to give her a divorce, she decides to find a lover who can give her a child. She undergoes a makeover, finds new confidence, and then is stopped in her tracks by a furious Rees, who demands that he be the father of her child.

Helene, despite her misgivings and willing to do whatever it takes, moves back into the Earl's home (with his mistress!) and slowly gets to know her husband again.

It was interesting to watch a couple come back together, after having been separated by pride and misunderstandings. I also liked the musical aspect of the book - the couple came together through a love of music, and Rees convinces Helene to help him improve an opera he's been struggling with. They both come to realize the mistakes they've made and work to make amends, with sexy results... : )

Romantic - recommended. ( )