The Speed of Seduction by Cara Maxwell

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


A Sweet & Steamy Racetrack Romance

I was not expecting to wind up describing a story that featured a young hero with a hardened reputation for brothel-frequenting as “sweet and innocent” but that is exactly what William Armstrong, fake rake and future duke, and Miss Simone Laurent, youngest daughter of a ridiculously large brood, wind up being together! Sweet, innocent, and delightfully steamy!

Simone is the “baby” of her family–a family so large it’s basically “Cheaper by the Dozen” meets the “Sound of Music,” but with much less singing and far more cranky and overprotective older brothers. Exhausted by her annoying siblings, who include a set of screaming twins who enjoy throwing things at one another, Simone is ripe for the picking and longing to escape home when William points her out as the girl he will marry. Little does Simone know that she is in fact the target of a bet between William and his friends. Compelled to find a bride by his dictatorial father, William claims he could win any girl at the ball–and Simone is the one he selects, almost by random.

But as William begins to woo Simone, it turns out the handsome young rogue is not so hardhearted or callous after all. Instead, his feelings for her are the ones which grow the swiftest and soon he can hardly remember how the entire affair began–all that matters is winning Simone’s hand as his wife. Will is impressively patient with Simone’s boisterous and at times obnoxious family, seeming more amused by them than anything, and is a refreshingly sweet and charming suitor. Their love begins as a friendship which gradually develops into more, and in the process Simone learns Will lives a more complicated and dangerous existence than she at first realized–and it has nothing to do with his reputation as a supposed rake. No, Will is caught up in a game of revenge–an overarching plot to do with Cara Maxwell’s Regency racing world that stretches over from Book 1 and which is growing in intrigue with every volume.

Steam Level: Steamy Stable Shenanigans! (Yes, it’s steamy.)



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