Historical
The Wicked Baron
By Chris
Jul 16, 2009 - 3:53:09 PM

Carlotta Durini, aka Miss Carlotta Rivington, is enjoying her first London season.  Exotically beautiful, Carlotta is all the rave amongst the Ton.  Her sponsors are confident she will make the most advantageous of matches, purposefully keeping mums about Carlotta’s scandalous parentage.  For now though, to the casual observer, everything is going swimmingly.  If only they knew how Carlotta is nursing a broken heart, courtesy of a “mostly” innocent liaison with the one and only Major Ainslowe.  She would have never sought to join the Ton’s ranks if not for his abandonment of her a year ago.  Still, Carlotta is determined to make a good match.  And rubbing it in the Wicked Baron’s face is just the icing on the cake.

Luke Ainslowe is neither a newcomer to London nor the Ton.  Quite renowned for being a debonair, near bankrupt rakehell, the ladies of the Ton are unsure if they should shun him or lay prostrate in worship of him.  Anxious to meet London’s newest heiress, Luke is confident that despite his ill-repute, his chances of winning Miss Rivington’s favor are unmatched.  Of course, he doesn’t realize his deserting her one year prior would carry any repercussions.  At their introduction, Luke is sorely disappointed to find a much changed Carlotta – apathetic, status-seeking, aloof, in every way a Ton debutante.  Surely he can’t want the new Carlotta.  But can Luke idly sit by and watch as Carlotta’s wealthy suitor is within her grasp, or will he defy her wishes just because he can, ruining her in the eyes of the Ton?

Sarah Mallory’s THE WICKED BARON is delicious, delicious, and... oooh, decadently delicious!!!  The innocence of first love, the poignancy of lost love, followed inevitably by pain, angst, and bitterness, the paralyzing fear and breathtaking excitement behind a stolen moment... THE WICKED BARON has it all, and so much more!  

Carlotta is the most perfect heroine for our dastardly, not quite reformed hero, Luke.  Where his romantic experience is extreme, Carlotta is innocent yet capable of insatiable passion.  Where Carlotta blatantly speaks her mind, Luke appreciates her blunt straightforwardness.  Of course, this was all before their parting.  To say their reunion is tense to the nth degree would be an understatement.  But Ms. Mallory treats Carlotta’s and Luke’s heartache in such a way that any reader will instinctively relate to both character’s emotional walls going up, to the double meanings behind callous words spoken in pain, and the penultimate regret that goes with doing what is believed to be “right” versus following your heart.  Every shielded conversation between them, each moment Carlotta and Luke share a pained or an aching glance from across a room, is another virtual kick in the reader’s gut; such is their beautifully all-encompassing despair.  But this is a romance (a bloody brilliant romance, to be sure), and there is a light at the end of the tunnel, with a happy-ever-after more than worthy of our lovers.

THE WICKED BARON is sinfully well-written and belongs in every romance library!  


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