Marriage Most Scandalous

Having slept with his best friend’s wife, Sebastian found himself accidentally killing his best friend in an unexpected duel. This has led his father to disown him and has led him to live a life alone. Suffering his father’s fury over what happened, he promised not to step foot again in England. In order to survive, he has accepted odd jobs and became a mercenary that gave him a notorious title, The Raven.

One day, Sebastian was visited by young and beautiful Lady Margaret Landor, who seeks for her service to find the son of her father’s friend, Douglas. Upon their meeting, Lady Margaret was surprised that The Raven was actually Sebastian whom she seeks. With this, Lady Margaret immediately asked Sebastian to go back to England to show more investigate the accidents that have befallen to his father that has his life in danger.

Forcing Sebastian to go back in England is no easy task considering that the man has vowed to never go back to the land of his birth and to forget everything about his family. However, with so much effort and wit, Lady Margaret was able to convince Sebastian to return. Sebastian, being The Raven, decided to return only to finish the investigation about his father’s accidents which Lady Margaret has tasked him to do.

Having disowned by his father, Sebastian is aware that he won’t be able to get information easily since he is not allowed to enter Edgewood. To solve this dilemma, Lady Margaret suggested that they pretend to be married in order to enter the land.

A pretense marriage is not good for Lady Margaret, considering that she is at her prime. But she took the risk and found herself falling in love with the odious Sebastian.

I was extremely disappointed in this book. It started off well-enough but the two lead characters never quite developed any chemistry between the two. I never reached a point where I was truly wishing to see them together. There was also the standard forced happy ending in which everyone lives happily-ever-after, people who were previously thought dead mysteriously reappear perfectly fine, etc. It just cleaned up a little too well for me. While I understand that most romance novels require one to put reality on hold (actually most books do, really), it just went a little too far for me. show less

Since romance novels are escapist reading, their formulaic structure doesn't bother me. Lindsey's are well written around characters that I can like. This one added a twist to the end that was a complete surprise and made me move this book to my "read again" stack.

Lady Margaret Landor travels the continent in search of ,Sebastian Townshend, who has been disowned and exiled by his father after he kills his best friend in a duel which his father espressly ordered him not to participate in.
Margaret wants to hire the " Raven" to locate Townshend as his reputation is that he never fails. To her upmost surprise Townshend answers the Raven's door, and she coerces him to return to England with her as she feels his father is in mortal danger have suffered many accidents of late.
The first stumbling block to Raven's investigation is gaining access to his father's mansion, they devise a scheme whereby they pretend to be married as his father would accept Margaret's husband into his home assuredly.

The story show more lags as this quasi investigation of these incidents procedes. The brother and sister-in-law are immediately under suspision as the brother may not want to wait for years to inherit the title. The SIL is a devious harlot who hates her husband and only wants money and a title to be legtimate.
During this process, Margaret begins to have some feelings for the Raven who only appears to be interested in having sex with her.
the dialogue between Margaret and the Raven does't allow one to get a richer or deeper understanding of their passion, it remains surface. The ending is rather convoluted but ties up all the lose ends

This is not one of Johanna Lindsey's best works. I would not read it again. I kept expecting it to improve and it never did. show less

The book contains potentially interesting setups, that constantly go nowhere. The hero and heroine's reason for the charade seems forced, and neither of them is all that interesting a character. And when what is actually going on is revealed, it's a huge let down.

Sebastian was banished from his family due to a tragic duel with his best friend. Lady Margaret, a childhood friend set off to find him. Known as the Raven, a deadly mercenary he had vowed to never return to England where he now found himself. His father, nor he realized his brother's wife had set him up. In order to find out all of the information he had to pose as Margaret's husband. His father is as stubborn as he is

Excellent book, a keeper for me. From page one I was hooked could not put it down.

A fun romp.