The Writing Rose

[b:Embracing Scandal|20563243|Embracing Scandal (Scandalous Siblings)|Suzi Love|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1389930793s/20563243.jpg|23751314]

Review Synopsis

Rebecca has formed a society to help women of all levels of society to improve their fortunes. It was within this society that one of Becca's friends was murdered and she (and her family) may be the next target. The men of the Tonn are not impressed that the Jamison family have managed to grow their fortune with shrewd and scarily accurate forecasts on the stock exchange.

The family is both sought after for the 3 beautiful girls just as much as they are for their connection to the brother they all think is making the clever investments.

It's not until Becca's friend is murdered that she risks seeking out Cayle for help. Even though he broke her heart a few years earlier, as an old family friend he and his brothers are still more trustworthy than any of their other acquaintences.

Cayle is fresh back from the continent after being exiled by his father, the Duke of Sherwyn for a scandal involving Becca's evil cousin and his own stepmother. To save further embarrassment to his family, Becca and himself he went abroad. Now that his father has passed away he is back as the Duke and head of the family.

Cayle insists that he and Becca can be nothing more than friends until he has sorted out the issue that is his stepmother, even though their sexual attraction to each other is electric.
Review
Suzi Love writes with passion and great detail from the period and this translates into her writing enabling the reader to fully imagine the characters, where they are and what they are wearing. She has really done her research.

The introduction of the stepmother confused me a little as there was no actual appearance of her in the story initially and then there was no reason given as to what hold she had over Cayle and his brothers, just that there was one. I really wasn't sure if I'd misread something or not. I would have liked to have known a bit more about the stepmother relationship and why it was keeping Cayle from choosing a bride, as we are told.

However, this aside, the logical thinking and intelligence of Becca and her sisters was comical in how it confused the men close to them. The girls mixed with all levels of society, whether there brothers and Aunt wanted them to or not, and learned a great deal from the people they met. In doing so they began to see marriage and the marriage bed relations as something to be explored and experimented with so as to know what they would be getting into when they married.

Interesting concept for an era that would not have discussed such matters, but I can go with that because not everyone is stereotypical of the era they live in. So I have no problem with women who can think for themselves in the regency period.

Cayle hated the idea of Becca "experimenting" with anyone but him and was constantly doing all he could to keep all other contenders out of her way. It became a full time job for him and I wonder when he was able to get any spying done. A skill he learned will abroad while working for the King.

The experiments that Becca did conduct with Cayle were very hot and steamy and gave me a slight blush from time to time.

Throughout the story and the engagements they attended I could imagine the scenes and the conversations and thoroughly visiting this world of Suzi Love's. I'll be following up this review with the next book in the series Scenting Scandal shortly, so look out for that.

Embracing Scandal is an intriguing, mysterious, funny and hot read that I recommend to lovers of Regency and Historical romances.