Review: A most Sinful Proposal

A Most Sinful Proposal (Husband Hunters Club - Book 2) by Sara Bennett

Publication Date: April 2010
Publisher: Harper Collins Publishers
Genre: Historical Romance
ISBN-13: 9780061339172
ISBN: 0061339172

(Received for review from Harper Collins)

Purchase: Barnes & Noble, Book Depository, Books-A-Million, IndieBound

If you live in Morehead, KY or the surrounding area:
Purchase from our local independent bookseller: CoffeeTree Books
Borrow from our local library: The Rowan County Public Library

Sara Bennett on the Web: Website, Facebook

Excerpt from A Most Sinful Proposal

Synopsis (Barnes & Noble):

A most wicked education...

Marissa Rothchild has always behaved as a proper lady should, and it has done absolutely nothing for her. Now she has made a most sinful proposal. She wants to live only for pleasure, and she wants Lord Valentine Kent to instruct her in the ways of love and lust. Caring not for scandal and the whispers of society, she craves his every wanton touch.

It is every rakes fantasy.

Lord Valentine Kent has never been so tempted. Though his every bit the gentleman, from the moment Marissa arrives at his country estate he can think of nothing but her wild, dark curls and luscious curves. But submitting to passion must wait until he completes the search for an ancestral treasure.

It is a most honorable endeavor.

But Kent and Marissa soon discover that even the best of intentions is no match for a desire as desperate as theirs...

Thoughts:

Sara Bennett brings us the second book in her Husband Hunters Club series, A Most Sinful Proposal. This is a historical romance with an interesting premise. Bennett's flare for a great plot twist gives this book an edge on the competition. This novel pacts the heat as well as a unexpected adventure. Readers will enjoy the search for the Crusader's Rose almost as much as the sensual relationship that develops between the main characters.

Marissa Rothchild informs the other members of the Husband Hunters Club that she has found the man she intends to marry, George Kent. The Husband Hunters Club was established by several girls from Miss Debenhan's finishing school. The girls had heard too much of terrible marriage relationships that were entered into for money or position and they decided they would hunt their own husbands, ones they could love and cherish despite what society had to say about it.

Marissa is in for a surprise when she turns up at George's country estate, to find him gone and only his brother, Lord Valentine Kent and his servants to attend her. Marissa quickly figures out that she and Valentine are very attracted to one another and she fears she may have picked the wrong brother. Valentine's life has been spent in scientific pursuits, chief among them the search for a family heirloom of sorts, known as the Crusader's Rose. Marissa wants nothing to do with science because her parents are both botanists and she has enough trapsing around the countryside looking at moss. But the search for rose captivates her almost as much as Valentine. Valentine's past may keep him from finding not only the rose, but the love of his life...

This was an engaging historical romance. Set in the mid 1800's in England, A Most Sinful Proposal gives the reader a sense of the decadence of the period as well as the sensuality. The author not only gives us a very sexy romance, but a very interesting adventure as well. Valentine's search for the Crusader's Rose adds a dimension to the story that was unexpected, with a great villain and some very good supporting cast members.

Marissa is a young girl on a mission to find the husband she wants. She doesn't want to marry someone just because he is prominent member of society or because it would be a good match. She wants to marry for love. She is going against convention in doing so. I thought her character was interesting. Her parents were botanists and she didn't want anything to do with that. I thought it cool that in the end she found that she was more interested in science than she thought. The search for the rose and the fact that Valentine was a leading expert in his field was a nice touch by the author.

Valentine is definitely a gentleman, but Marissa certainly doesn't make it easy for him. He is a widow and had a very traumatic experience with his wife, Vanessa. She constantly degraded him and he doesn't want to ever marry again because he feels unworthy. Despite his past he begins to have serious feelings for Marissa. It quickly becomes more than just lust and he is uncertain how he wants to proceed. I thought his character was clever and not your average scientist. I loved the fact that he was a rose expert and that he wanted to find a very rare specimen that once belonged to his family. He was very protective of not only Marissa but of all the people he had in his life.

I loved the supporting characters like Marissa's Bohemian grandmother and Valentine's friend Jasper. They added a lot of zest to the story and Von Hautt the villain added mystery and madness. This was a great story. Even though I had not read the first book in the series, this one was fine as a stand alone. It didn't require any serious details from the first book and the story itself was captivating and different. I recommend this one to those of you who love historical romance.

A Most Sinful Proposal is available NOW from your favorite bookseller.

I'm giving this one 4 out of 5 apples from my book bag!





Sara Bennett has always had an interest in history, and to survive a series of mind-numbing jobs, she turned to writing historical romance. She lives in an old house with her husband and two children in the state of Victoria, Australia, where she tries to keep the house and the garden tidy, but rarely succeeds - she'd rather be writing or reading.