Book Review: A Most Improper Rumor

Author: Emma Wildes
Publication Date: March 5, 2013
Publisher: Signet Eclipse
Series: Whispers of Scandal # 2

What is society to do when the diamonds of the first water are caught in compromising situations, one after the other? Can the young ladies survive the season with their reputations intact…or will the scandalous whispers surrounding them bring about the ultimate ruination?

Once the toast of the ton, Lady Angelina DeBrooke is no longer known just for her exquisite beauty, but more for her notorious marriages. Dubbed the Dark Angel, she has fallen in love for the first time and wishes to marry, but fears finding herself a widow for the third time. With two poisoned husbands and a cloud of suspicion hanging over her head, she turns to the only man in England who might help her…

Benjamin Wallace, Lord Heathton, isn’t interested in playing detective again, but when Lady DeBrooke approaches him in a quest to clear her name, he finds the challenge irresistible. Her second husband was an old friend, and when he takes a closer look, he catches the scent of a foe he has hunted before—and knows this is his chance to finally trap the elusive prey...

Had anyone discovered she’d created another identify and quietly accumulated a small fortune, she might have hanged. The thought always made her grow cold. It hadn’t been anything more than caution on her part and a bid for some measure of independence, but admittedly, a seemed calculating. As it was, she lived modestly lest anyone inquire as to where the money came from.

 

Was this love? Of course he was attracted to her, and certainly she was everything a man could want, beautiful, gracious, intelligent, but it was something more. Undefinable. Moving. So precious he feared losing it more than anything in this world.

 

All her knew was he was truly in trouble because he had no idea how to be in love. And yet it had happened.

 

Kindred souls. Yes, he thought she was the most glorious lovely woman he’d ever seen, and he desired her beyond rational thought, beyond prosperity, beyond anything he valued in his life; but he also found music in her laugh, a singular enchantment when he looked into her silver eyes, and, most important, peace in her presence, even when they were both silent and absorbed in other tasks.

This is the second book in the Whispers of Scandal series and is best if read after reading the first book. I do not believe that this one can stand alone because many of the events that take place in this book directly follow what readers learned in the first one. In this novel we meet a woman named Angelica DeBrooke who is the most notorious woman around and is commonly known as “Dark Angel.” Both of her husbands have died and what makes this more coincidental is that they died from the exact same causes. Of course she is accused for murder and needs help out of this sticky situation. This isn’t even the half of her problems. She falls in love with a man named Christopher, who would love to marry her, but Angelica cannot bear the thought of his fate being the same as her first two husbands.

 

I loved that this storyline ties into the storyline from book one and that the main characters from that book reappear in this one. I do not want to spoil anything for anyone so I cannot go any further into details where this is concerned, but I will say that I loved Alicia and Ben and was so thrilled to see them reappear in this story, and to be so involved in helping Angelica solve her case. I also enjoyed the fact that Alicia gets involved in this investigation because I absolutely loved her character. I found it hard to love Angelica’s character and I think that has to do with me just being so in love with Ben and Alicia’s story in book one.

 

I did enjoy this book and was invested in Christopher and Angelica’s story, just not as much as Ben and Alicia’s. I felt like in this book the details were given to me so plainly and that I didn’t have to work for anything. I wasn’t kept guessing at all. I also hated how Angelica’s beauty was constantly referred to. However, I was pleased with Christopher’s character and his devotion to Angelica. Some of my favorite quotes were when he was describing his love for her and the strong romantic pull that he felt where she was concerned.

 

I was most happy that Ben and Alicia surfaced in the story and I am just sorry to say that I don’t feel it would have been the same without them.

 

***A BIG thank you to the publishers at Signet Eclipse for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review***