Love with a Scandalous Lord [Mass Market Paperback]

Lorraine Heath (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 27, 2003

For as long as she can remember, Lydia Westland has dreamed of glittering London society. Finding herself at last in England, she is determined to make the most of this opportunity. Clutching her copy of ′Blunders in Behaviour Corrected′ she sets forth to find a suitably titled husband. But what she finds instead is Rhys Rhodes, a second son with a past that is anything but glittering. To Rhys, Lydia is everything he has lost - innocence, laughter, joy - and everything he cannot have.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

*Starred Review* Grayson Rhodes, bastard son of a duke and an actress, was first introduced in A Rogue in Texas (1999). Fourteen years have passed since his exile to Fortune, Texas, and now he's been called back to his father's ancestral home to be at his deathbed. With the duke's oldest legitimate son dead, Rhys, the second son, stands to inherit the title. Grayson's 20-year-old stepdaughter, Lydia, is quite taken with Rhys. She's pretty sure she can snag him, too, because she's brought her trusted guidebook, Blunders in Behavior Corrected, to help her deal with the many rules of London society. Rhys is stunned by the wit and beauty of his brother's stepdaughter, but the former "Gentleman Seducer" feels as though his lurid, scandalous past holds too many terrible secrets for him to pursue a relationship with her. He selflessly sponsors Lydia for a season on London's marriage market, but she keeps her sights on the man she loves. In Heath's exceptionally written novel of nineteenth-century England, a very stubborn American pursues a nobleman who's much better than he thinks he is. Shelley Mosley
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

About the Author

Lorraine Heath wrote her first story at seven, and it involved a fisherman who fell in love with a mermaid. She has since moved on to writing about sexy cowboys and dashing English lords (and sometimes, cleverly, in the same book!). Publishers Weekly says she is a "master of her craft." She is, indeed, and along with being a New York Times and USA Today bestseller, she has won the RITA^® Award, Romantic Times Reviewer's Choice Award, and a Career Achievement Award.

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Avon (May 27, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0380817438
• ISBN-13: 978-0380817436
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (27 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #530,798 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Lorraine Heath always dreamed of being a writer. After graduating from the University of Texas, she wrote training manuals, press releases for a publicist, articles, and computer code, but something was always missing. In 1990, she read a romance novel and became not only hooked on the genre, but quickly realized what her writing lacked: rebels, scoundrels, and rogues. She's been writing about them ever since, for both adult and young adult readers (as Rachel Hawthorne). Her work has been recognized with numerous industry awards including RWA's RITA(R), a HOLT medallion, a Romantic Times Career Achievement Award, three Romantic Times Reviewer's Choice Awards, and several Texas Gold Awards. Her novels have appeared on bestseller lists, including USA Today, Waldenbooks, and most recently, the New York Times.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Another Heath destined for the keeper shelf...., May 28, 2003

By 

Freelance Reviewer "Carla" (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Love with a Scandalous Lord (Mass Market Paperback)

Lydia Westland is living her dream, albeit at the expense of her step-grandfather's impending death. Lydia is in London, her stepfather's homeland, a far cry from her home in Fortune, Texas. She's rather overwhelmed by all of the pomp and circumstance, but is bound and determined to enter society and find a suitable, respectable husband. Lydia is immediately intrigued and attracted to her stepfather's half-brother, Rhys Rhodes. When Rhys agrees to teach Lydia all the rules of living among the ton, neither expects the lessons will affect their hearts, as well as their futures.

Rhys Rhodes does not consider himself husband material. Circumstances from the past, a guilty conscience, and the fact that he has very strong feelings for Lydia keep Rhys in constant turmoil. Ten years older and much more worldly than Lydia, he decides the best thing he can do is find her a suitable husband. When his father dies and Lydia's family returns home, Rhys sets out to do just that. After all, as the new Duke of Harrington, his title should carry weight in introducing her to society. Never having known love, Rhys is convinced that Lydia will be much happier with someone else than she could ever be with him.

I was at first put off by Rhys, who seemed more of a cad than hero with his constant lusting after Lydia, but as the story unfolded, I found him to be one of Ms. Heath's most tormented, tortured, and sympathetic heroes to date. Ms. Heath slowly peels away layer after layer, making for a slower paced book than what we are used to from her, but it works extremely well for this story. I found myself almost in tears in a number of places toward the middle and end. Lydia Westland, the stepdaughter of Grayson Rhodes, from A ROGUE IN TEXAS, has one foot in childhood, the other in adulthood. When it comes to fighting for her man, however, Lydia is all woman.

LOVE WITH A SCANDALOUS LORD is very sensual, filled with depth of emotion and characterization. I highly recommend this latest offering from Lorraine Heath as another of her powerful stories destined for the keeper shelf.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Love with a Scandalous Lord...Hmmm, July 2, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Love with a Scandalous Lord (Mass Market Paperback)

Many of the reviewers for Lorraine Heath's "Love With a Scandalous Lord" believe she should go back to writing about Texas. I am a fan of Lorraine Heath's and this story is the first story I've read from her where the setting was in England. I'd say, it was an okay story. I enjoy reading stories in various settings. But I prefer her other books to this. I just found some of the characters really annoying and can't believe in their reasons and rationale for the way they act. For example, Rhys the hero in the story just didn't click with me. Okay, I know how most romance stories go. The hero's some tortured soul with a bad boy streak with the nobody-loves-me outlook and the heroine is the nurturing oh-so-understanding type, the martyr. Rhys was just so into his "I-don't-deserve-anything-I'm-a-horrible-person" mode most of the story, that it got a bit tedious. Once it was revealed why he was feeling the way he did, I felt like saying, "Geez, for crying out loud!" If he felt that awful why did he have to live up to his "self-made" reputation? As for the heroine, Lydia, her child-like manner of extreme innocence just left me rolling my eyes in dismay. How could she be so naive? She acted as if she was locked up in a convent before she came to England. I mean she admitted in the story that there were boys back home that she associated with, i.e. kisses, courting, etc. etc. So how could she be "that" naive with men and "what goes on between a man in a woman"? And her dream to be a Lady and mesh in England's high society was over taxing. "A dreamer" she was dubbed. She was bordering on "stupidity". I understand how she wanted to see how the other half lived, but puhleeze! She was practically an ambitious social climbing, wanna-be. As for Rhys' mother. She was a cruel woman. Imagine her telling him she wished to God that it was him that drowned instead of his older brother? Then at the end she explains why she had treated him cruelly for years, a very weak and stupid reason at that. But this seemed to satisfy our hero. All in all, the story was okay. I enjoy Lorraine Heath's books, but this one has left me in limbo as to whether or not I liked the story. Maybe if there were some humor to the story it would have been more of an enjoyable read. But this won't prevent me from reading more books by Ms. Heath.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars If I could I would give it 6 stars., June 12, 2003

By 

Thea (Florida, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Love with a Scandalous Lord (Mass Market Paperback)

Wow! What a fantastic love story! I read this book in one day, I literally could not put it down.
Rhys is one of the most compelling characters I have encountered. He is handsome, passionate, sensual and strong, and at the same time vulnerable, tormented, lonely and in great need of love. What woman can resist a combination like that in a man? His desire to protect Lydia even at the cost of his own happiness made my heart melt, while Lydia's confidence in their love and its capacity to overcome any difficulty and forgive anything made me feel proud of her. She is a very believable heroine, with a very tender soul and a great capacity to love and understand. I could sympathize with her because for the most part she reacted like I would have done in her circumstances.
I have enjoyed this book throughly, but my favorite scenes are when they are in the garden and he realizes that she is barefoot and her feet are cold and he rubs them so tenderly, and the scene when he plays the piano with such sensuality. I could almost "hear" the music in my head! Oh, and of course, at the ball, when instead of turning her back on him like the rest of the world was doing, she goes to him and takes his hand regardless of the consequences.
A completely delightful love story and a well written book, were the author touches deep and delicate themes with great taste and masterful ability.