A Notorious Love

This book is one of the "Swanlea Spinsters" series, and an enjoyable one. Daniel is the son of the Irish highwayman "Wild" Danny Brennan, and Helena is a well-bred daughter of an Earl. It's an amusing sort of Cinderella story - with a gender reversal. The plot in this book - recovering her sister who has eloped - doesn't get in the way of the story, but supports it. Enjoyed this book!

A Notorious Love was enjoyable enough - a road romance in which our intrepid hero and heroine are hot on the trail of the heroine's abducted younger sister. Much hanky panky high jinks and adventures with smugglers ensue. Helena and Daniel are cute together. Daniel especially is such a charming fellow - I really liked him when he made his first appearance in A Dangerous Love. The plot in A Notorious Love, however, was just a bit much for me. Daniel used to be a smuggler back in the day, and along the road with Helena his past catches up with him. So he gets all moany and repentant, goes a bit crazy with "shackle" metaphors (he is "shackled" by his evil past, and he doesn't want to "shackle" Helena to him and his evil past, all while he show more is literally shackled to a bed ...don't ask.) It takes a while for these two to hash things out (Helena doesn't help any either. She's a bit of a cold fish - except when drunk apparently) and just get on with their happily ever after already. But when I'm not distracted by the angst or the plot, the book was pretty fun and sweet. And I really liked the excerpts from old Irish and Scottish ballads that preface each chapter. show less

The book starts when the heroine, who has a limp, goes to the hero's house (an ex-smuggler) to ask him his help in locating her sister who seemed to have eloped with a fortune hunter and possible smuggler. The hero reluctantly agrees that she accompany him in his search, while he's trying to pick up the trail of her sister. But the only way she can accompany him without ruining her reputation, is if she pretends to be his wife. And so the search begins, and of course they have to share rooms in taverns and deal with smugglers, some of which are friendly and some not. Their proximity makes their attraction to each other hard to ignore, but she's a gentle-bred lady, while he's a low-born ex-smuggler who only recently became respectable, show more so they are both reluctant to act on it.The book was not bad and kept a nice enough pace and balance between action and romance. However, the hero and mainly the heroine were not my cuppa: she was overly naive and innocent (she even didn't know how men and women mated) but also intelligent, courageous and spunky -to the point of stupidity I might add- while he was over-indulgent for my taste. Fans of these qualities will no doubt like this one. A note though, that this is the second in a series, and the hero of the first one is closely related to the smugglers. I didn't have a problem following the story without having read it, but even the reason behind the sister's 'elopement' is related to events that took place in the first book. They are explained here, but briefly. show less

Jeffries creates some great characters! I'm always a sucker for a disabled heroine, but this book was quite enjoyable besides. And on to the next one!

Stands up on re-read, great story

Jeffries creates some great characters! I'm always a sucker for a disabled heroine, but this book was quite enjoyable besides. And on to the next one!

I just couldn't buy into this story and the characters seemed like cliches rather than interesting, unique people. I also found all the harping on the rulebook lessons tedious. But, it wasn't painful or didn't offend me or anything, so I'm okay leaving it at a 2. It wasn't horrible, but it wasn't for me.

Second in the Swanlea Spinsters series. Pretty good. Helena's sister Juliet elopes and Helena enlists the help of ex-smuggler, Daniel, to track her down. But Helena insists on coming along, so Daniel calls her his wife to help with the caper. Only by the end of the adventure, they want to make the marriage real.