Book Review-A Loving Scoundrel

A Loving Scoundrel

Malory Series

Johanna Lindsey

Atria Books, 355 Pages

Published April 2004

Regency Historical Romance

ISBN: 0-7434-5625-4

Synopsis
Enter the privileged world of English aristocrats and experience the passion, intrigue, and romantic pleasures of the incomparable Malorys - a family of dashing rogues, rakehell adventurers, and spirited ladies. Now Jeremy, the son of gentleman pirate James Malory, falls in love. . . .
When Danny, a young woman who grew up on the streets of London with no memory of her real family, is banished from her gang because she helped handsome rakehell Jeremy Malory steal back the jewels his friend lost in a card game, Danny demands that Jeremy give her a job. She is determined to become respectable in order to fulfill her dream of marrying and starting a family. Intrigued by her beauty and spunk, Jeremy hires Danny as his upstairs maid, although he wants her as his mistress.
Under the tutelage of Jeremy and his cousin Regina, Danny blossoms into a lady. Although she is drawn to Jeremy by passionate feelings she has never experienced before, she refuses to be anything more than a servant to him because she knows he is not the marrying kind. When Danny undergoes a Cinderella-like transformation and poses as Jeremy’s new love in an attempt to help him avert a scandal, a few highly placed members of the ton remark on how familiar Danny looks. Now tongues are wagging, raising the question of her true identity, which threatens not only Danny’s chances of capturing Jeremy’s heart but her very life.

My Review
In A Loving Scoundrel we have a young woman, Danny, who grew up on the streets, learning how to pick pockets and steal to survive. She has no memory of her life before she was found and integrated into a gang of pickpockets and thieves. Having no choice but to pose as a boy, in order to protect herself, so that she doesn't have to work at a whorehouse, she has cultivated a excellent talent in thievery and pickpocketing, however deep inside she aches for a stable future and a husband and children. Then Jeremy Malory interrupts her life, and turns her reality up side down. After a certain chain of events occur, where she is then kicked out of the gang she has lived most of her life in, she knows her only recourse is to go to Jeremy and demand compensation for what his actions has done to her life. She knows that in this process she will have to learn to act like who she really is, a woman both beautiful and courageous inside and out. Jeremy Malory, a lover of woman abroad, has certainly met his match in Danny who is truly unlike any other woman he has ever met. Despite the fact that she has such a unique beauty that takes his breath away, he knows that he must go about to seduce her into his bed, despite the fact that she thinks like a man and throws punches like one, but that only encourages him in his effort. When Danny goes through a transformation to help Jeremy avoid scandal, she is turned into a Cinderella and both Jeremy and Danny are shown the pathway of true love that will change their lives in ways neither of them expected.

A Loving Scoundrel is by far one of my favorites of this series, Jeremy is definitely a rascal and rake just like his rakehell of a father, however he also has a gentleness side of him that the reader gets to see. There is a intensity about the relationship between Jeremy and Danny. Danny has had to learn to survive on the streets of London, but now she is grown up and wants more from her life than thievery to survive. When she starts working for Jeremy as a maid hoping to have a respectable life, and starts thinking about goals which include marriage and children, then never expecting trying to find someone that takes her breath away and steals his way into her heart, which she has kept closed off until she meets Jeremy, but what she never expects is that her life is put in danger when she raises question about her past that she has no memory of, but with Jeremy on her side, they will both be tested of their feeling that they have for one another. I truly loved this story, it sweeps the reader off their feet and into a romantic world of passion, adventure of intrigue that is portrayed in a way that will leave you with a smile at the end. So if you love historical romance and Johanna Lindsey you will fall in love with Jeremy's story, GUARANTEED!!!

My Grade On This Book
5 Blossoms

Other Books In The Series
 Love Only Once

Tender Rebel

Gentle Rogue

The Magic Of You

Say You Love Me

The Present

Captive Of My Desires

No Choice But Seduction

That Perfect Someone