Title: My Lord Scandal (Notorious Bachelors #1)

Author: Emma Wildes

Publisher: Signet Eclipse 2010

Genre: Historical Romance

Pages: 306

Rating: 4/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Summer Romance - Historical

I picked this book (and the other two in the trilogy) up at a Border's closing sale.  I wanted some fun historical romance.  Nothing too deep, but something entertaining.  And I think my $2 a book was good money spent.  At least on the first one.

Alexander St. James may be a thief of hearts, but he is no burglar. Nevertheless, he must recover and item belonging to his family to avoid a scandal, and so he has stolen into the home of Lord Hathaway, only to come upon the beguiling and chaste Lady Amelia in her bedroom, wearing little but a look of surprise. Alexander leaves Amelia breathless-but is it from fear or excitement? Captivated by her beauty and charmed by her intellect, he ignores the scandalous whispers as he sets out to seduce the woman of his dreams... -- from Amazon.com

My Lord Scandal is a typical historical romance.  We have the rouge who is secertly a good guy.  We have the damsel in distress.  We have the overbearing guardian (in this case a few).  We have the sympathetic friend/relative (in this case an aunt).  All well and cliched in the realm of historical romance.  Historical romances can often be very predictable.  I like them for entertainment, but most aren't very clever.  It's like watching a movie for the millionth time.  You know what to expect, but that doesn't mean you don't enjoy it.

But this book had a mystery.  Lord Alexander needs to find this key, but he doesn't know why.  We spend a good portion of the book unraveling this mystery.  That's what caught my attention.  The intrigue going back decades holds these two families together.  However the two central characters don't know why.  In the course of finding out, of course they fall in love.  Their love is, of course, scandalous.  And their parents are not approving of the match.  An enjoyable read.  Nothing spectacular, but decent addition to he genre.

Notorious Bachelors

• #1 My Lord Scandel
• #2 Our Wicked Mistake
• #3 His Sinful Secret