Sweetest Scoundrel by Elizabeth Hoyt

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Moving right along, the next book in my binge of the Maiden Lane series by Elizabeth Hoyt is book 9, Sweetest Scoundrel. If you've come along on this binge with me, I've been reading these for the live show hosted by Jenn at The Book Refuge. I managed to squeak this one in on time and ended up reading 9 (and 1/2) of the 12 books! Update: I have applied this book to the Romancing Summer Challenge for the flowers on the cover prompt.

This book wraps up the Harte's Folley chunk and gives us the beautiful HEA for Eve (the Duke of Montgomery's half-sister) and Asa. What I really enjoyed about this book is that they weren't instantly attracted to each other at first. Eve is different than Asa's normal "type," but he still finds himself drawn to her. Eve has suffered a lot of trauma and can't stand to be around dogs or touched or be around men.

Her trauma was difficult to get through, however I feel torn on how it was dealt with. I liked that the little touches (helping out of a carriage, brushing arms when walking, etc.) were enough to give her pause and I loved how natural it felt when she started to feel comfortable around Asa. He also really liked to tease her a lot and I adored when she almost didn't know what to do with herself or what she was feeling. However, once Asa realized she felt desire for him, I feel like they started rushing things. It didn't feel rushed and I understand that there comes a point when you let go a lot and want more, but it just felt slightly off at times. I also loved her Dove and Henry the mastiff she rescued (despite being terrified of dogs). 

While I really enjoyed this book as well, it just didn't leave me feeling as settled as the previous books. I think part of it was the secondary plot (once again) and the person trying to destroy the theatre. It just felt kind of rushed at the end (again) and there wasn't really any clues on who was behind everything. I know that that's part of the fun of a mystery, but I feel like there should've been more questions on who it actually was and not the wrong person almost the entire time. I don't know, it just felt unnecessary with all of the emotional work that they both had to do to reach happiness. It just felt like too much or not fleshed out enough (again). We also get the lead in to the last set of the series, what I'll call the Lords of Chaos chunk. I'm super excited to continue the series and hopefully will get through the last three books and few novellas by the end of the month!

Have you read Sweetest Scoundrel?

Bookishly Yours,

Stasi🍎

STATISTICS: Sweetest Scoundrel, Elizabeth Hoyt, 4-stars, 1 day, eBook, 368 pages, published in 2015