Reviewer: Robyn Roberts
Title: The Tarnished Lady - 3rd in the Highland Pleasures series
Author: Sandra Hill
Publisher: Avon
ISBN-13: 978-0-06-201913-4
Release Date: July 2011 (Reissue)
Genre/Sub-genre: Historical Romance (Viking)
Year/Setting: North Umbria, 946
Overall Rating: 4.0
Sexual Content Rating: Sensual
Language (Profanity/Slang) Content Rating: Mild
Violent Content Rating: None
Sandra's Website/Blog: www.sandrahill.net
Lady Eadyth of Hawks’ Lair doesn’t really care that she’s been banished from society. She’s happy to be with her son—born out of wedlock—and her bees. She runs a tight keep and with the sales of her honey and beeswax candles, she’s become quite the profitable merchant as well. But she has a need if she wants to keep her boy. She needs to find a man to claim paternity before the boy’s real father takes him from her…and her lands and freedom.
Eirik of Ravenshire is a notorious bachelor known for loving and leaving every woman in his path. Now he’s being offered a marriage of convenience—with no sex with his wife—where he is allowed to keep his mistresses if he will claim Eadyth’s son as his own. He accepts…but not for the reasons she thinks. His mortal enemy is the true father of the boy and he will do anything he can to thwart his nemesis.
Things start of swimmingly, but as he learns more about Eadyth, he finds himself more and more ensnared by her schemes and machinations. The worst part, for him, is that he doesn’t really mind. He likes the mental exercise of trying to stay one step ahead of her. He finds himself drawn to her more every day. Will their plots work or will they lose her boy forever?
I was enthralled from first page to last. Eadyth is so much like me that I loved her from the get go. I was a little thrown off by her ability to fabricate…umm…lie, to Eirik. It became some of the most comical moments in the story. She’s a firecracker and she made me laugh.
Eirik is a lot more serious than anyone gives him credit for. He really desires to make things better now that he’s home for good. But these things take time and he hasn’t had time to get things in motion. His reactions when his new wife takes matters into her own hands was incredible. I laughed until I cried and yet, it made both of them all the more lovable to me.
This was Sandra Hill’s first attempt at writing a true historical without any time travel. It still remains a wonderful book that I think you will enjoy.
Robyn
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