Once A Rake

So think Phantom of the Opera but with an HEA and masked scarred hero who really turns out to be gorgeous. Yeah, I was hooked until that last part too. Actually though, I did enjoy this book. This was a Kindle special that I had remembered someone suggesting one time when I was looking for scarred and broken men (what can I say I like my men emotionally tormented and not beautiful).

Lord Ashby is a war hero/duke/best friend of Will who happened to be the older brother of Isabel aka: the heroine. (I cant help it, but whenever i write the word "heroine" I feel naughty). Lord Ashby is 13 years older the Isable and they have known each other since she was a little girl. In fact, Isabel kisses him when she is but 15 and he 28.  So of course theres alot of miscommuncation between the H & h (if there wasnt then there would be no plot), but in the end it all works out.

I did enjoy this story despite the frustration of Ashby and Isables mind games - I can say that they were not nearly as bad as some, but still there none the less. I also loved that Ashby was a masked recluse in the beginning of the story. I wish he wouldve stayed that way instead of unveiling and stepping back out into society only to be viewed as even more handsome and manly as ever.

A definite heart warming and sensual story.

Devon says: read it.

Amazons Product Description:

War had scarred the Earl of Ashby's face...and perhaps his soul. Before being wounded in the Napoleonic war and shunning society, the dashing lord had been a notorious rake. Now, Isabel Aubrey, a proper lady, dares to approach the masked, reclusive nobleman for a large donation to a worthy charity - and decides she must save him from his self-loathing. She begins to flirt. He responds. She invites him to a masquerade ball. He accepts and dazzles her with a kiss.But Isabel already has a fiance and despite her attraction to the earl she knows she must reject him. Yet no force on earth is greater than the passion that leads her into his bed; nothing she has ever experienced is more exciting and erotic. Now he asks her to stay with him although it will mean her ruin. Isabel must not say yes - and the smitten earl cannot let her say no. To win her body and her heart, he initiates an outrageous scheme that only a rake would devise - and no woman can resist.