The sins of Viscount Sutherland

James (His Wicked Ways) phones in her repetitive latest Regency. Viscount Grayson Sutherland, grieving for his dead wife and child, unintentionally kills a hotheaded young man in a duel. The duelist's sister, virginal Claire Ashcroft, comes to London seeking revenge. Posing as a widow, Claire decides to use the only power a woman has: to make this notorious rake fall in love with her and then publicly spurn him. Predictably, he instead seduces her and gets her pregnant, leading to an uncomfortable marriage of inconvenience. The pair are clearly in love, but they deny their feelings, squabble, break up, make up, find new reasons to argue, and repeat the cycle multiple times until resigning themselves to a happy ending. The hot sex and wrenching emotions will satisfy some readers, but others will run out of patience. (June) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Vengeance rarely plays out as we expect it to, as Claire Ashcroft discovers when she embarks upon a plan to ruin Viscount Grayson Sutherland, the man who killed her brother. Claire poses as a widow, hoping to lure the dastardly womanizer into falling in love with her so she can spurn his affections and devastate him socially and emotionally. What she doesn't count on is Gray's immediate attraction to her and her own unruly desires. Suddenly, the scheme doesn't seem as foolproof as it had, and Claire is beginning to like this scoundrel despite her loss at his hands. Then this house of cards crashes down on both their heads, with a bundle of complications. Verdict James's (Bride of a Wicked Scotsman) layered romance features a number of interfering friends and relatives ready to lead the couple on the right course, if they will only listen to reason. Claire seems overly naive about physical relationships and their ramifications, which might explain why the resolution takes so long in coming. Fans of James will be anxious to see this first in a new series.-Bette-Lee Fox, Library Journal (c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.