The Dangerous Lord

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Synopsis

To keep a roof over her and her four younger brothers heads following her father's death, Felicity Taylor took a position writing a gossip column for a London newspaper. When she finds out her friend is betrothed to the Viscount St. Claire, a notorious scoundrel, she tries to stop them from wedding by publishing a story that he's keeping a mistress. Her plan works all too well, but it also brings the viscount to her door, saying that the tale isn't true and demanding that she retract it. Although he's a distractingly attractive man, Felicity stands by her story, but that still leaves Ian without a bride whom he desperately needs. As Felicity and Ian see each other at balls and parties around town, they begin to actually like each other and desire takes root, so that Ian proposes that Felicity marry him. Feeling that he's not being honest with her about his checkered past and that he only wants a brood mare to bear his heir, she refuses, but when one of her father's creditors comes calling, catching them in a compromising situation, while also demanding money that she doesn't have, she has little choice but to wed Ian after all. Soon Felicity realizes she's fallen in love with her husband, but will her love be enough to convince Ian to share what's been troubling him for years?

Ian Lennard, Viscount St. Claire, has a scandalous reputation, but he doesn't really care. In his estimation, the rumors that have surrounded him for years are far better than the truth. He believes that if the reality of the tragic incident from his youth ever got out, no one would want to have anything to do with him. He never intended to marry, but a stipulation in his father's will that he must wed and produce an heir within two years or his uncle will inherit the family estate means that he has to find a wife soon. Engaged to a bland but suitable young woman, Ian thought his troubles were over until Felicity's story about his "mistress" surfaces and ruins all his plans. After meeting the gossip columnist, he realizes that she's far more interesting than his former fiancee, and eventually proposes that she marry him instead. But when she demands complete honesty in exchange for her marriage vows, he simply cannot comply. Instead they play a game of cat and mouse until a midnight tryst that's discovered by a creditor who is also demanding immediate payment of debts forces her hand. But when Ian finally realizes he's fallen in love with his new bride and that his uncle is spreading lies about what happened in the past, he knows he'll have to reveal his darkest secret and hope that Felicity can love him in spite of it.

Review

The Dangerous Lord is the third and final book in Sabrina Jeffries's Lord Trilogy. Ian, the Viscount St. Claire, has a dangerous reputation, though one that isn't entirely deserved. He's desperately seeking a wife to fulfill the terms of his late father's will and has recently been betrothed to a meek, mild-mannered young woman for whom he feels nothing special, but who meets his criteria for a wife. When the girl's friend, Felicity, learns of the scandalous rumors surrounding Ian, she uses her secret position as the gossip columnist known as Lord X to make insinuations about Ian keeping a mistress, hoping that it will end the engagement. Her ploy works all too well, leaving Ian vexed that he'll now have to start his search all over again. Angry with Lord X, he uses his connections to ferret out the mysterious writer's identity and is shocked to discover that "he" is actually a very attractive young woman. Over the next several days, they butt heads frequently, but a desire begins to take root between them, which boils over into a compromising situation when they both attend a holiday house party. Realizing that Felicity is far more intriguing that any of the other young women he's courted, Ian immediately offers marriage, which Felicity, feeling that he has too many secrets to be trustworthy, turns down flat. Instead, they engage in a game in which she's trying to help him find a wife, while each of them grows more jealous every time they see one another with someone else. When Ian can stand it no longer, he ends up well-and-truly compromising Felicity, but still finds himself having to twist her arm to get her to agree to marry him. But if he can't bring himself to share his deepest, darkest secret with her, their marriage may not stand much of a chance, and if Ian's evil uncle has his way, they may find themselves ostracized from society.

Ian had a fraught relationship with his father that often left them at odds with one another. At the age of nineteen, following a dark moment involving his aunt and uncle, Ian fled to the Continent, where he served as a spy for the crown during the Napoleonic war. Ever since, rumors have swirled through society about what caused Ian to flee and what exactly he did while on the Continent. Most say that he is a coward and an unrepentant rake, neither of which are true, but he can't seem to shake the false accusations, which has made it difficult for him to attract marriageable young women. He never intended to wed, but if he doesn't find a wife and produce an heir within two years, his father's will stipulates the family estate will go to his villainous uncle and he can't allow that to happen. When Felicity's allegations in her newspaper column derail Ian's plans, he doesn't hesitate to learn her identity and confront her. From the moment they meet, Ian is attracted to her, but at first, they're essentially enemies. After a stolen kiss at a ball and an even more passionate encounter at a house party, his feelings begin to change, making Ian want to marry Felicity. She's not cooperative about the matter, though, and instead agrees to help him find someone else, but before long, he tires of their game and lets her know it. He hopes after making love to her that she'll acquiesce to his proposal, so when she doesn't, he feels he has no other choice but to twist her arm. Felicity finally agrees, but Ian soon discovers that in order to have a harmonious marriage, he'll have to reveal the darkest part of himself before his uncle beats him to it.

Overall, I liked Ian. He's clearly harboring a dark secret that has tormented him for years, so much so that he'd rather people think the things they do about him than to reveal the truth. The slightly disappointing part of this, though, is that he waits until the very end of the story to finally tell Felicity everything and waiting to get there proved frustrating for me. Also with him having such an exacting man for a father who never showed him any real affection or support, I felt like he had even more to overcome than the incident that he's keeping secret, but that part of his past was never explored in any detail. I adored Ian for being so sweet with Felicity's little brothers and for being so generous with both them and her. I also like that once Ian realized how much Felicity intrigued him, he was all in with trying to get her to agree to marry him. The only thing that really gave me pause was the way in which he basically ended up threatening her if she didn't marry him. Admittedly she was being incredibly stubborn and it was for her own good, but I think he could have handled the situation differently so that he wasn't practically forcing her into matrimony. Otherwise, I thought he was a good hero.

As the daughter of a renowned architect who designed homes and buildings for the aristocracy, Felicity is welcomed at their balls and parties. When her father died, leaving her and her brothers nearly penniless, she used her connections with the aristocrats to start writing a gossip column for the paper under the pseudonym Lord X. It still isn't enough to pay the mountain of debt her father left, so it's only a matter of time until one of his creditors loses patience and then they'll likely lose their home. When Ian comes calling one day, upset about her latest column in which she accused him of having a mistress while being engaged, she finds him both irritating and attractive, but she refuses to back down, standing by what she wrote. Although they continue to be at odds, as she starts to see him out in society, they become more and more drawn to each other until a stolen kiss and a deeply passionate moment leads to him proposing that she marry him. Feeling that Ian has far too many secrets that he refuses to share and that he only wants a brood mare to bear his children, Felicity turns him down, but in return for him not revealing her as Lord X, she agrees to help him secure a wife. The only problem is that she finds herself jealous of everyone upon whom he dances attendance. Eventually an outing together at the wax museum is followed by an unforgettable night of passion, but despite now being thoroughly compromised, Felicity still can't bring herself to agree to marriage until Ian blackmails her into it. However, once married to the stubborn Viscount, she realizes just how much she loves him and is determined to get him to trust her with his secrets.

I have to admit that there were times throughout the story that Felicity frustrated and annoyed me. Initially she comes off as the equivalent of an unrepentant tabloid reporter, refusing to accept that the things she prints could be damaging and insisting that she's only reporting the "news" when in reality she's really only publishing speculation. She also stubbornly refuses to accept that Ian doesn't have a mistress, even though he repeatedly tells her so in no uncertain terms. Admittedly he was being secretive about why he was really helping the woman and who she was, but it's not like Felicity had given him much reason at that point to trust her, so it really wasn't any of her business until they were in a relationship. Also she refuses Ian's proposal, not once, but twice. The first time I could maybe live with, because they were only caught in a compromising position by their good friends who weren't going to say anything. However, the second time, Ian is caught at Felicity's house in the middle of the night by one of her father's creditors and the man most certainly would not have kept quiet about it. Not to mention, at that point, she would have been facing destitution without financial help, so it seemed foolhardy in the extreme for her to refuse Ian, secrets or not. On the up side, though, I loved that Felicity is a great big sister to her four brothers, caring for them and doing her utmost best to provide for them even though it was difficult. Also, once she decides to stop being at odds with Ian and prove her love, I felt she did a very admirable job of it, showing him all the kindness and compassion I'd been wanting to see from her but hadn't for most of the story. Not to mention, in the end, she finally put her gossiping skills to good use, helping turn society's attention away from Ian's secrets, so I felt that she'd perhaps finally turned over a new leaf.

I very much had an up and down relationship with The Dangerous Lord, partly because I felt like the story was a little too convoluted. I've never been much of a fan of the enemies-to-lovers trope, nor do I like it when the main characters in a romance play games with each other. I always feel that if they love one another they should just be straight about it. My feelings regarding the story were also partly affected by Ian and Felicity having an up and down romantic relationship. It started well, but then Felicity annoyed me with her attitude about gossiping being okay. Then it got better, then something else would frustrate me. Wash, rinse, repeat, until about the time that Ian and Felicity finally get married. After that things went better, although as I mentioned before, I became more and more impatient to learn what Ian's big secret was. I understood why he would keep it to himself, but at the same time, it was an accident. Despite that, he understandably harbors a lot of guilt around the incident, which if it had come out sooner would have given him more time to work through it. As written, he barely has time to relate the facts to Felicity, who is surprisingly compassionate about it, before they have to face his uncle's lies. He also shares it with his best friend, which helps lighten the load a bit more, which made sense, but at the same time, I felt like having it all come out at the very end was too quick for him to really make peace with it. All's well that ends well, though, and the book did have a good ending. I also enjoyed getting to visit a bit with Gideon and Sarah (The Pirate Lord) and Jordan and Emily (The Forbidden Lord) who are Ian's friends, and Felicity's brothers were cute and adventurous without being annoyingly precocious. All things considered, despite a few frustrations here and there, The Dangerous Lord was a pretty good read and a respectable wrap-up to the series.

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Sabrina Jeffries

Themes

Babies & Children
Christmas Stories
Opposite Sides of the Track
Tortured Heroes