Customer Reviews

The Wicked Truth (Historical Romance)

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I love this book. It has a heroine who had her reputation slandered and an upright hero who ends up helping her and falling in love with her. This book really impressed me because of the transition of Neil from being a stuffed shirt to a man deeply in love with Elizabeth. Elizabeth really got a bad rap, and did what she could to extricate herself out of the situation, but in the minds of society, she was tarnished goods. Neil starts out looking down on her and believing the lies and the superficial gossip of what was seen on the fateful night that was the nail in the coffin of Elizabeth's reputation In fact she is an innocent and virtuous woman who is being preyed on by an unseen enemy out to ruin her. As Neil gets to know her, he comes to realize that she is a really good person. If you dislike the virginity proof is a sign of innocence plot, you would enjoy this book. Elizabeth seduces Neil while he's drunk, thinking he'll be more likely to have a sexual relationship with her if he doesn't believe she's a virgin. So his feelings for her and coming to love and respect her have nothing to do with her virginity because although he has a vague memory of having sex, he doesn't know it was with her.

Fans of the woman dressed as a man theme would also like this book. Elizabeth doesn't quite make a very convincing man. Neil and his friend immediately know she's a woman, and Neil, feeling sorry for the runaway, takes her into his house for her protection until her situation can be resolved. Events unfold to reveal that although Neil is priggish (it's a Victorian, so that's fitting) he has a good heart and a good head on his shoulders. Although Elizabeth is rather young acting and somewhat impulsive, it doesn't ruin this book for me. I think she is a good match for Neil, who really needs to learn to relax, and slowly does unwind over the course of this book.

This is another underrated gem from the Harlequin Historicals line, in my opinion.

I have been donating my paper books for several years and accidentally donated my copy of The Wicked Truth. When I discovered this, I re-purchased the paper version (and The Arrangement, Lyn Stone's follow-up, which I'd also accidental donated).

Then I bought my Kindle and donated even more paper books. I only kept those I knew I would read again, which included The Wicked Truth and The Arrangement. I reread this book recently and had The Arrangement in my car so I could read it again. My mother took it out of the car and started reading it and loved what she read. I advised her to read The Wicked Truth first even though they are standalone books. Neil, Betts and Lindy do appear in the second book.

Now Mom has both of them and I thought I would check the Kindle Store to see if they'd been kindleized. Yes! I didn't hesitate. I bought them both right away.

I'm seldom this enthusiastic about Harlequin books but these two were wonderful reads with engaging characters. I'll be reading them both again starting this weekend.