"This one is as good as STRICTLY SEDUCTION!"

This is the sequel to STRICTLY SEDUCTION and is Gavin Daggett, fifth Duke of Cropthorne's story. If you read STRICTLY SEDUCTION, you will recall that Gavin is Madeline's cousin and Brock's best friend and business partner.

Gavin's other cousin James is waiting for his fiancée to arrive so he can introduce her and her brother to Gavin. James is a clergyman of the best and most innocent sort. All he cares about is taking care of people and redeeming them even if they seem to be unredeemable. Kira Melborne is one such person in James' estimation. She mistakenly made the decision to elope with reprobate Lord Vance. After being in his company for two days, he refused to marry her. There's more to the story but Kira is humiliated and only wants to get on with her life. James offers for her because he feels he can redeem her.

Gavin is stunned when he meets Kira and her brother Darius. They are both quite exotic in their looks due to their mother being Persian. Their father travels the world and their mother went back to her family in Persia leaving her children with their father. James' mother Carolina is appalled that her son would want to marry this fallen woman and wants Gavin to do something to stop the marriage.

Kira only wants to be accepted for who she is. She's been an outcast all her life. She feels that by accepting James' proposal she will finally be accepted. Gavin is highly attracted to Kira but thinks it's only because of his libertine father's blood in his veins. His father created scandal all his life until he died. Gavin is horrified that he's attracted to Kira but decides that he must do all he can in order to get James to see Kira for what she is. Looks can be deceiving though as Gavin will find out the hard way.

I enjoyed this book as much as I did its predecessor. Gavin was the quintessential tortured hero in that he wanted to take care of his family and would do it any way he had to even though it went against his grain. Kira was the heroine who was wrongly accused but because of her heritage no one believed her when she told her story. It was a joy to finally see Kira and Gavin get together. Now I want to beg Shelley Bradley for Darius' story!

Reviewed by Kathy Boswell
Posted November 11, 2002

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Summary

A PASSION MORE POWERFUL THAN PROPRIETY

Miss Kira Melbourne is anything but a proper English rose. Her exotic beauty, courtesy of her foreign mother, has marked her as an outsider, and her ghastly reputation as a woman of loose virtue has only added to that status. The victim of a devious viscount's horrible lies, Kira has the chance to redeem herself and become a member of polite society as the fiancée of a respected country clergyman. She'll finally have a place to belong...even if it's in the tepid arms of a man she doesn't love.

Gavin Daggett, Duke of Cropthorne, isn't about to let his naive country cousin marry a scandalous woman like Kira Melbourne. The solution is a simple one: Gavin will seduce the vixen and prove her unworthiness, thereby releasing his cousin from any obligation. But spending time with Kira is like awakening to a world of color and beauty, and it stirs the fiery desires Gavin has fought to suppress his entire life. Caught in his own dangerous game, sharing forbidden pleasure with Kira, Gavin knows that the price of loving her is high—and yet it is one that he will willingly pay...with every beat of his heart.