Temptation's Darling is about a young woman named Vanessa who was raised by her father who was in hiding in the Highlands. Growing up with her father she was allowed freedom to explore unladylike interest. Now Vanessa must return to society and marry. Lord Montgomery Townsend is the Prince Regent's fixer. Hiding from the scandal he watches as Vanessa's mother works on setting up a disastrous marriage between Vanessa and a rogue from a powerful family. He soon realizes he wants Vanessa for himself.

I read this sometime in 2021 and here I am review it in 2022. I will be honest and say I cannot recall a lot about this book. I remember a couple chuckles. I had to read the official synopsis to recall bits and pieces. I will say this is not Lindsey's best work but at the time it was enjoyable.

I will give three stars for a memory of being enjoyable. Thank you to NetGalley, Gallery Books and Johanna Lindsey for the free copy this was an honest review.

This book was so good! The characters were very interesting, colorful and very entertaining. The story itself, while very long, was excellent! Not a dull moment in there. It had drama, suspense, action, romance, humor and a really good twist that I did not see coming. This is a book that should not be overlooked. Highly recommended.

There is rather a lot going on in this Regency romance. The main plotline follows the romantic relationship that develops between Vanessa Blackburn, daughter of the Earl of Ketterham, and Lord Montgomery Townsend, a friend of the Prince Regent. Despite their powerful mutual attraction, Nessi is determined to ensure her father’s return from exile in the Scottish Highlands, even if it means marrying his enemy’s son; Monty is on a secret assignment to protect a foreign prince from pursuing assassins. Throw into the story the difficulties Nessi encounters reconciling with her estranged mother and twin sisters, learning the polite customs approved by aristocratic society, and attracting someone who is both reluctant and offensive for reasons not fully explained, and the unfortunate consequences of Monty’s (largely) undeserved reputation as a rake.

With so much to deal with, the subplots are inevitably thin. While they function to help or hinder the happy marriage between the lovers that their wrong-headedness seems to place out of reach, they are an unsatisfying distraction. They also verge on the melodramatic, particularly the incompetent assassination attempts. Disappointing, despite some entertaining characters and scenes.

Queen of romance is back with another wonderful book! She has enlightened me with the story in Scotland and London setting. She has made the romance bloom at its best. She managed to create characters that are memorable in this book.
Highly recommended for all historical romance readers.

Nessi has spent the last six years in exile in Scotland with her father after he fought a duel. Now it is time for her debut but can she fit into London Society. ARC from NetGalley.

I generally really, really enjoy books by Johanna Lindsey, but this one fell a little flat. Although I enjoyed the back and forth between Vanessa and Monty and there was a little heat between them (not enough) they did not have that special something, something that would make me stay up until all hours just to finish the story and witness the HEA. And the ending seemed rushed. The story was entertaining but not one I would pay to read.

This was just ok for me. I don’t really love it and it was very slow going. Thank you to netgalley for the arc.

Thanks to the publisher for an ARC to read and give my honest opinion.

Loved it! This author always seems to grab me with her bodice ripper style books. Vanessa is quite the main character as she travels country roads with two brute size Scots on her way back to London for her debut. Along the way to her mother’s, she meets a small party of men whom she hopes to blend in with. Instead she finds love with a notorious rake and situations that make laugh out loud.

What did I like? Nessie was a grand character unlike her spoiled sisters. More well rounded and easier to like. Her finding a match felt like a disaster waiting to happen but just goes to show love does strike where and when we least expect it.

Would I buy this book? Yes! Given that she is a well loved author she is always on my buy list!

Thoughts for the author? Absolutely loved the book! I want more of the Warrior's woman series though. Please do another book.

Available now: Temptations Darling

****4/5 stars: Loved it. Fast-reading fun, Temptation's Darling is another great adventure romance from Johanna Lindsey.



Recommended readers:

If you like Johanna Lindsey
If you are a historical romance, especially set in England
Here's my Rankings:

4/5 for characters
4/5 for plot
4/5 overall
Note: Steamy factor (2 of 5 ... little steaminess)
REVIEW FROM BOOKS FOR HER:
After a tragedy, Vanessa was raised in the Scottish Highlands by her father, while her sisters and  mother stayed in England. When the time comes for Vanessa to return to her mother's care, he meets the infamous Lord Montgomery Townsend on her way there, and he's on a mission of his own.

Johanna Lindsey is well-known for her adventurous historical romances, and Temptation's Darling is another great one. A great storyline, unique and engaging, keep the story fast-reading and fun. There's lots to love about Temptation's Darling.

Let me start by saying that I absolutely love Johanna Lindsey and I have read every single book of hers with much love and delight. However, this was not my favorite by JL. I appreciate having characters that are different book to book because you don't always want to have an Alpha male, etc, but, I didn't like either of the MCs. Could just be my taste but the hero was silly or something to me. Trying to be funny and always cutting up and saying funny things (not funny to me, but he thought so). I just like more of an alpha hero I guess, which is normally the hero's we get in a JL book. And Ness, the heroine, I could find nothing I really liked. Sad by this, but I will definitely read her next book as not every book clicks with every reader!

If you love Johanna Lindsey and her Mallory series, you will definitely love this book. Vanessa and Monty are great. Vanessa is a daughter of an exiled Earl of Ketterham. Vanessa lives with her father in Scotland however, she goes to London to live with her mother for her coming out season. Monty is staying at Vanessa's mother home. These two fall in love and find out why her father is exiled. This is a good book for historical readers.

This is a historical romance. I hardly read this type of book but this one changed my mind about reading more of these in the future. The character development and plot was excellent.

The story is well thought out and nicely written making this an exciting page turner and one which I am more than happy to recommend."

This book was a little slow for me. The pacing seemed to drag on. The main characters kept me interested though and I was happy that I finished it. Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher and author for this ARC.

You really can't go wrong by picking up a Johanna Lindsey book to read. She blends everything so well.
We return to Regency England for a interesting twist on the season for an unusual girl. How many young ladies from well bred families run around in trousers and know how to shoot? That would definitely be Vanessa. She's come home for her season but she's doing it on her own terms. And bringing her family back together is her biggest wish.
Montgomery may have been off more than he can handle with his latest task for the Regent. Yet you won't hear him complaining when it brought such an interesting bit of baggage into his life. Now how to keep her there while protecting her from the rake she's set her eyes on. And let's not forget his own baggage he had to deal with
Let's watch the story unfold.

A sweet story, with many funny and sweet moments. I found myself unable to put it down till the very end as I wanted to see the two main characters finally come together. A great story to curl up with on a rainy or snowy day!

I have voluntarily read and reviewed a copy of this title given to me through NetGalley. This book was just absolutely wonderful. It was just so easy to get lost in and I just couldn’t put it down. I was just so lost within this story that I just didn’t want it to end. I most definitely will read more by this author.

Vanessa has returned to England to re-enter society. Her mother thinks that she is there to finally have her season and marry, but her true purpose is to end her father's exile to Scotland. When she learns that her mother has found a way to do this, she agrees to marry the son of the man that exiled her father. But she has to make it seem as if marriage is all his idea or he will never agree to it.

Monty is working on a project for the Prince Regent and this takes him into the household of the Earl of Katterham's family where he meets Vanessa. He is intrigued by her from the start and can't imagine what she wants to marry a rogue. But he is willing to help her reach her goal. As he spends time with Vanessa, he falls further under her spell. Can he continue to help her get the man she wants, or does he turn his charm on her to win her for himself?

I really enjoyed Vanessa and Monty's story. It's been a long time since I've read anything from Lindsey and I'm so glad that I picked this one up. Her writing has always been one of my favorites and this was no exception. Vanessa was not your ordinary society gal since she was raised in Scotland by her father and that is why I liked her character so much. I also really liked Monty.

Temptation’s Darling was a much anticipated read for me. Johanna Lindsey books in general are engrossing with strong heroine and alpha male characters, which I personally love. Her stories often times have interesting side characters and sub-plots within the main story, thus setting up possible sequels, such as my favorites - the Malory’s and Anderson’s.

The main characters of this story are Vanessa and Monty. They have some adventures on the way to falling in love and entertaining banter when they do interact, which unfortunately wasn’t enough in my opinion. There was a lot going on in the story detracting from theirs.

Vanessa is a feisty, strong-willed tomboy/lady and Monty is perceived as a rake by society (he’s really not). An almost instant attraction develops once Vanessa sheds her disguise as a boy that she’s wearing when she first meets up with Monty in her travels to England from Scotland where she’s been the past six years.

I’m not going to give an entire book report of the story like other reviews. The gist of it is Vanessa’s father is exiled from England in the beginning of our story for killing his wife’s supposed lover in a duel. He decides to go to Scotland and ends up leaving behind Vanessa’s mother and younger twin sisters. Vanessa’s entire obsession in the story upon her return to England becomes how to get her father back home from Scotland to reunite with her family (although, she doesn’t care if her parents estranged marriage is fixed - she wants her father back home for her sisters and herself. No love loss for mom, Katherine).

There’s too many distractions with bad guys continuing to pop up on and off in the story taking away from the key romantic moments where we think we’re finally getting somewhere.

Another quirky thing that struck me as odd and had me wondering where Lindsey was trying to go, was our two dreamy sounding Highlander characters who return to England as Vanessa’s body guards until she marries. In my opinion they really aren’t relevant and make no impact aside from a bit of Scottish humor and protectiveness to our “lass”. I understand they were her cousins, but they popped in and out of the story so randomly by the time I was starting to like and enjoy them so much more than Monty’s side-kicks, whoosh, they would be gone (head scratch and hmmmm...)

The love scenes are not enough due to infrequent alone time and the minutia of all the side plots and characters continuously interrupting our MCs quality time together. The main heat doesn’t come until you’re close to 75-80% or so in the book and after much anticipation, it ended up being a huge letdown for me. The love scenes were rushed and seemed censored like a prime time t.v. sitcom where our love birds hit the sheets, then a quick cut to them clutching them to their chests and smoking cigarettes with tousled hairdos.

All in all, I have to admit I was mostly dissatisfied with the book and the ludicrous reasons for the family split/Vanessa’s father’s exile for so long and miscommunications that could have brought them back together so much sooner.

I also could have done without Vanessa thinking she was the only one to fix her family’s problems and returning home disguised as a boy for as long as she was, in order to prolong reuniting with her estranged mother and sisters until she was “ready”. Just apparently wandering incognito around her grand house as a boy wearing a cloak and hood for days, and no one was any the wiser. Really?.....

Also, Vanessa’s ability to put off much needed conversations to take place “later”, when there usually wasn’t any logical reason to do so. I guess that was supposed to leave us in further anticipation, but it really made me end up getting sick and tired of girlfriend.

I really wanted more Monty/Vanessa alone time because his wooing was adorably sweet and he’s simply besotted with clueless Vanessa. I love a “besotted” male MC!

After suffering through most of this book, I’m truly hoping for sequels with Monty’s sister Claire and Vanessa’s jilted fiancé, Daniel. Those would be novels to look forward to. I guess we can let the twins Emily and Layla have a go too as they sound delightful for the most part, but please relieve them of their strictly pink and white attire as eighteen year olds, albeit debs - snooze-fest.

True rating 2.5 stars rounded up to 3.
*Honest review given for complimentary book from the publisher Thank you!*

William Blackburn, Earl of Ketterham, has lived in the Scottish Highlands with his daughter after winning a duel and learning of his wife’s alleged betrayal. Vanessa has grown up having independence and not worrying about etiquette. Her mother feels that the only way to bring her husband back is by getting Vanessa involved in an arranged marriage. But, when her father sends her back to London for her season, Vanessa meets up with Lord Montgomery Townsend. Monty is running from his own alleged scandal and has become a ward to a boy who is more than what he seems. Can Vanessa bring her father home and marry for true love?
I loved this novel. The passionate and witty characters, and the wonderfully romantic plot reminds me of other books written by this fabulous author. I loved both the hero and heroine, they are strong and capable while dealing with circumstances they didn’t create. I hope she continues with these characters in another book. I received an Advanced Reader Copy of this book from NetGalley and am voluntarily reviewing it.