[Hardcover]

Rachel Ashton's life is saved, but what kind of life is it? Her current days are spent trying to keep an abusive stepfather from hurting her mother more than he already had and trying to find a way to get her a divorce without him finding out.

When Rachel discovers that not only has her Stepfather sold her into marriage, but into marriage with a man very much like him. So she goes to Lord Braven for help. His offer is to marry her. Of course, it's just a marriage of convenience, but Lord Braven wants to save Rachel to hopefully rid the demons that torment his soul. While Rachel only wants to save her mother.

The abusive stepfather and the complicated nature of the relationship between Rachel and Lord Braven offer up an interesting story. There are some very dark moments of the story involving the abusive relationship and the lengths an abuser will go to. There is also some humor in the story so it blends with together along with great chemistry between Lord Braven and Rachel. They are both attracted to each other, but isn't this marriage simply for convenience?

I enjoyed this story much more than I thought I enjoy historical romances but many today are still rather bland in the love scene department. Usually if you want to go past the bedroom door you have to search and ask for referrals from fellow readers.
This book has great heat and is very descriptive. For romance readers who enjoy a good love scene this is one. The book has great tension between the two lovers. There are many scenes of build up before the big event. This is what good romance books are to me. They have story and the event is also as good as the story.

I look forward to reading more by this author. As if I need another author to be hooked on, but happily I add her to the ever growing piles of faves on my list:)

Balthazar Wycherley, the earl of Braven, was overcome by guilt over the death of his first love that he felt he had failed to prevent. Stumbling upon his neighbor, Rachel Ashton, who was drowning in a nearby river, he realizes that he may have found the one woman who can help him forgive himself and also who has given him a jolt of sexual awareness - an awareness that his grief had buried for over a year. In order to rescue Rachel and her mother from her brutal stepfather, Sir Henry Westhaver, Brave proposes a marriage of convenience. Rachel accepts, but is devastated when the mother she thinks she is saving decides to give Sir Henry another chance. The very steamy love scenes, and the comical dialogs between Brave, Rachel and his two best friends (who are being set up for the sequels in her next two books) are wonderful. It really is a great book but it didn't make me want to stay up all night to read it as her first "Elusive Passion" did.

The story starts with Brave saving Rachel from a raging river and becoming enchanted with her at the same time as he is fighting demons from his past. You will also like his friends. At the same time Rachel is trying to save her mother from a seriously abusive setp father. So you see alot of her internal struggle as she thinks it is her fault that her mother has married this man...