The Seduction of Scandal by Cathy Maxwell

Title/Author: The Seduction of Scandal by Cathy Maxwell
Publisher/Date published: Avon Books, September 1st 2011
How I got this book: received it from the publisher through NetGalley

Goodreads summary: "It’s never wise to blackmail a highwayman. Lady Corinne, rebellious daughter of the duke of Banfield, refuses to marry Lord Freddie Sherwin. Yes, he’s the catch of the season and the man her father chose for her. He’s also the most despicable male of her acquaintance. With her wedding only weeks away, she runs away and finds herself a prisoner of the notorious Thorn! The rich and powerful tremble at the highwayman’s name, while England’s villagers rejoice in his bold exploits. His identity is a secret; his life a mystery - until Lady Corinne tumbles into his arms. If the Thorn wants her silence, he must hide her until her wedding day passes. It’s a devil’s bargain and one that can only lead to a hangman’s noose. Corinne believes it the perfect plan - until her highwayman reveals a passionate lover’s heart, and she realizes that in the seduction of scandal, she may have found the hero she’s been waiting for her whole life."

Okay, so based on the summary, I was thinking: ooh, dangerous man with a soft heart! And I like my dangerous men to have softs spots in their hearts, if they're just dangerous, it's no fun. But to my disappointment, the man was not so much dangerous as he was soft.

I'm wondering what went wrong in the combination of this book and me, and I think it's the fact that I didn't quite believe everything that went down. And most of all: I didn't believe the romance. I did not believe that one meeting, where they made a scene has him mooning after her. And I did not believe that just because she lived in his house for 3 days, she suddenly loves him, when pretty much all he's done is ignore her and spend as much time outside of his house as possible.

I was kind of expecting the big twist at the end and this made it pretty anticlimactic for me. And I never really warmed up to the two main characters, which is something that can make or break a book for me.

I did like the story in itself and that the Thorn was a sort of Robin Hood, he was in truth a good man, but not the dangerous man I was expecting based on the summary.

My rating: 2 stars