The Ruthless Charmer.

Author: Julia London

Genre: Historical Romance.

Source: Personal Copy.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Book 2 of 4 in The Rogues of Regent Street Series.

Synopsis from Goodreads.com:

No woman could resist Julian Dane. Except Lady Claudia Whitney. Julian had known her since childhood, but the headstrong lass had grown into a beautiful woman. Julian vows to teach her everything he knows about passion. But Claudia, in her most innocent ardor, promises to challenge him to the most dangerous emotion of all: wild, all-consuming love.

The rogue met his match in the woman he was forced to wed.

My Review:
At first, I was a little put off on reading this book - because I didn't enjoy the first one all that much, but I really wanted to get to know Julian and Claudia after scamming over a couple of random pages.

Julian was known as a rake, of course (hence the title), and Lady Claudia was as much of a do-gooding lamb as they come. And I positively loved both of them.

While I really loved this couple, a tidbit of their background story bothered me a bit. They'd known each other since Julian was barely a man and Claudia was a good friend of his younger sisters. Normally I don't mind such an age difference, but the fact that his sisters were mentioned so much by him thinking of her (Claudia) in his past, was a little on the bothering side. I couldn't help but feel that, at one point, Claudia could have very well been like one of his younger sisters. I don't remember such being stated in the book, but I still wish the author put more of a...divide between them in his flashbacks of her as a young woman. But I suppose there wasn't much of a choice there, seeing as how Julian's parents both died, leaving him to care for his sisters at such a young age. Of course I realize feelings can change and grow in different, more stronger directions as people get older and get to know one another in an entirely new way.

I really liked how the story moved along and I got to know Julian and see that he wasn't such a rake after all, and that Claudia was truly a sweet hearted lady, who always meant well. It was important for Julian to see that, seeing as how Claudia encourages some things she really shouldn't have, without knowing what she had done. It was so worrisome knowing how angry Julian would be with her and that he possibly couldn't forgive her, but as always with a Julia London novel, no matter how bad and irreparable things may seem between the hero and heroine, everything always comes out just right. This, I think, was a great example of that.