Book Review: Lord of Wicked Intentions by Lorraine Heath

Title: Lord of Wicked Intentions
Series: The Lost Lords of Pembrook, Book 3
Author: Lorraine Heath
Genre: Historical Romance
Sensuality Rating: Steamy
Source: Edelweiss
Published: April 30, 2013 by Avon

Lord Rafe Eason may be of noble blood, but survival taught him to rely only on himself and to love no one. Yet when he sets his eyes on Miss Evelyn Chambers, and earl's illegitimate daughter, he is determined to have her, if only as his mistress.

After her father's death, Evelyn Chambers never imagined she would be sold to the highest bidder, yet circumstances give her little choice except to accept the lord's indecent proposal. Rafe is wealthy, as well as ruthless. Yet his coldness belies deep passion and deeper secrets. If she must be his, Evelyn intends to lay bare everything the Lord of Pembrook is hiding. But dark discoveries threaten to destroy them both until unexpected love guides the last lost lord home.

Reviewed By: J9

In a Nutshell: Surprised myself and really enjoyed this emotional romance which concludes a good series.

The Set Up: Rafe and his brothers survived their uncle’s attempts to kill them but it caused them to be alienated from each other. Rafe learned to wall his heart off but even he feels sorry when he attends the auction for a young woman’s virtue. Evelyn is the bastard daughter of an earl and thinks her brother is finding her a husband, not a protector. Rafe buys Evelyn and bargains her security for his pleasure but he gets more than he bargained for.

Why I Read this Book: Avon Addict here!

What I Liked: I was shocked how emotionally intense this romance was. This is a classic romance trope so I didn’t think the romance between Rafe and Eve would be so emotionally intimate. Rafe’s emotional thawing happens in believable steps that didn’t seem forced but seemed organic to his character development. Rafe’s issues with touch made him a much more complicated hero than most stoic historical romance heroes and I loved this. Eve’s refusal to be hardened by her experience is also part of the tension between her and Rafe and I thought it produced a fairly complicated emotional romance.

What I Also Liked: Rafe’s brothers were the heroes from the previous two books in the series and I liked revisiting them here. The relationship between the brothers is a sub-plot to all three books and comes to a resolution in this book that didn’t seem too perfect but offered the resolution I desired. The heroines from the previous books are also featured and put a bow on the series that I appreciated.

Eve’s complicated relationship with her deceased father and her brother were also well described. I like that Eve retained her joy of life even in the face of her brother’s abuse and her father’s benign guilded cage. Her character had as much development as Rafe’s and I like this in any romance.

Rafe’s past is also a huge part of who he is in his relationship with Eve. In the previous books Rafe is the emotionally distant brother who captivated me and likely did other readers as well. I wanted to know his story and what made him an emotional recluse and I got the answers here. The ending was extremely satisfying, on a romance level, sure but just as much on Rafe’s character which is what I wanted the entire series.

What I Didn’t Like: I admit, the set-up for this book is a VERY familiar trope: young innocent has no clue she’s to be the mistress of a wealthy, emotionally distant man who is cured by her magic-woo-ha. I almost stopped reading at this set up but am so glad I gave the book 10 more pages because the relationship quickly became more than the set-up. The emotional relationship progressed so much further than I expected and even the sexual intimacy was different than the usual forced seduction of historicals that use this trope.

IMO: This is by far the best of the series and may be one of the best historical romances I’ve read in a long time. The emotional intensity along with extremely well developed characters makes this an unusually good historical romance in my opinion.

J9’s Rating:

 

 

J9’s reviews for other books in this series:
Lord of Temptation – 3 frogs