Lord of scoundrels

Lord of scoundrels by Loretta Chase
Published by Avon
Grade: A

Tough-minded Jessica Trent's sole intention is to free her nitwit brother from the destructive influence of Sebastian Ballister, the notorious Marquess of Dain. She never expects to desire the arrogant, amoral cad. And when Dain’s reciprocal passion places them in a scandalously compromising, and public, position, Jessica is left with no choice but to seek satisfaction...Damn the minx for tempting him, kissing him...and then forcing him to salvage her reputation! Lord Dain can't wait to put the infuriating bluestocking in her place -- and in some amorous position. And if this means marriage, so be it! --
though Sebastian is less than certain he can continue to remain aloof...and
steel his heart to the sensuous, headstrong lady's considerable charms .

The gals at Book Binge bullied me into reading this. ;-) I had borrowed it out of the library twice, but brought it back unread each time. I hated Lord Perfect so much, that there was no way this one could be any better.
My library only had the one copy of it, and by the time I was ready to read it the last person who had it had lost it. Damn.
So, I bought it in ebook. I'm happy that I did. It was as good as everyone promised.

Dain and Jess have a love/hate relationship. They love to pretend to hate each other. Jess has a rather stupid brother who thinks that Dain is Gods gift to the world. He wants to be just like Dain, so he does all the things that Dain does in order to be 'cool' like him. Jess's brother isn't too bright, and everything he does just makes him look bad, or gets him into trouble. When his bad gambling starts to put him in the poor house, Tess wants him to stop hanging around Dain.

Tess buys an icon of The Madonna not knowing that it's worth a lot more than what she paid for. When Dain finds out how much the icon is worth, he tries to buy it from her. Jess says that as long as he agrees to leave her brother alone, then she will simply give him the icon.

Dain doesn't like being told what to do, so he makes it a point to drive Jess's brother even deeper than he already is.

Even though Dain is a Lord, he never dallies with a Lady. He sleeps with trollops and pretends they are respectful for as long as it takes to rut with them, but thats as far as it goes. Dain didn't have a childhood filled with love and acceptance, so now as an adult, he doesn't feel that he belongs or is worthy to receive it. When he finds that he is more than just attracted to Jess, it puts him in a bitter mood.

There is plenty of reluctant flirting on the part of Dain, and Jess is such a witty little thing, that she doesn't just blush and bat her eyes at him. I really enjoyed the dialogue between the pair.

At a ball Dain is caught by some gossips with his hands up Jess's skirt. He thinks that she set him up so that they would be forced to wed. Dain decides to put her in her place by pretty much calling her a whore in front of everyone and then stalking off.

They do eventually get married. After Jess paid him back by shooting him. That has got to be my favourite scene in the book.

Loretta Chase wrote an excellent back story for Dain in the beginning of the book. Even though he isn't your typical handsome Hero, I found myself falling for him as fast as Jessica did. I wanted to wrap my arms around him and give him a big hug.

Awesome book! No doubt that I will re read it again and again.