Sunday, November 11, 2018

Kresley Cole’s IF YOU DECEIVE – Absorbing Victorian Romance: A Story of a Scarred Soul and a Broken Lady!

Sadly, Kresley Cole no longer writes historical romance, but we have several that are classic keepers. This is one. The last book in Cole’s Victorian trilogy and my favorite, this is the story of Ethan MacCarrick, the oldest of three brothers, Scots who live under a 500-year old curse that promises death if any of them marries. Of course, the curse was not all readable so they don’t know the whole of it.

Ethan was a heartbreakingly handsome rake until a powerful nobleman ordered him brutally beaten and his face scarred for a crime he didn't commit. In revenge, Ethan bankrupted the nobleman. Ten years later, a haughty, mysterious beauty captures Ethan’s attention one night at a masquerade ball. When he learns she is the daughter of his enemy, he decides to complete his revenge: he'll promise her marriage, seduce her, then cast her aside.

Madeleine (“Maddy”) van Rowen has had a hard life. She comes to London hoping her cousins can help her find a new path, but alas, her encounter with a man who takes her virtue has her returning in shame to the slums of Paris where she ekes out a living. When that same man, Ethan, comes to Paris to find her, he is shocked at her living conditions and awed by her courage and kind heart toward others.

I fell in love with Ethan and Maddie and their story (introduced in the second book in the trilogy, If You Desire). There is something about love healing a scarred man and a curse to overcome that melted me. The characters are well developed and the plot moves at a good pace. Cole did her homework on the historical setting—it feels authentic—and she makes you fall in love with Scotland and it's men. The three Scottish brothers are sexy and strong and love their women with a passion that is compelling. They will draw you in, I promise. And Maddie is, well, one of the most endearing characters I have ever met.

I couldn’t put this story down. And the rest in the trilogy are equally good.

The MacCarrick Brothers Trilogy

If You Dare
If You Desire
If You Deceive

1 comment:

  1. Loved this one too. Haven't read the previous two but Ive kept this one in my library and read it twice already :)

    ReplyDelete