You had me at the nickname "Vicar of Vice" for Lord Chief Justice of the High Court, Cassius Gerard Ramsay. He is trying to stop sin on the streets of London. He is straightlaced and doesn't believe in anything that gives pleasure - at least the last eight years anyway. Except for the woman, he is reluctantly pining for who is his best friend's wife's good friend.

On the day that Cecelia Teague inherits a gaming hell from an Aunt, she never met and became known "Scarlet Lady" the proprietor. The establishment is raided and accused of selling women against their will to men in London. She denies everything because she doesn't know anything. She is also in disguise as the Scarlet Lady, and she lies her way through a meeting she doesn't understand. The man who is loaded this over her is none other than the Vicar of Sin, Cheif Lord Justice Ramsey.

He doesn't realize that the woman in the disguised is the person that he has been dreaming about for the last few months since he saw her, is now the owner. He yells and threatens to kill her. She is confused with the man that she is unnerved by and the version of the man doing his job because they are different. After a kiss and a bombing of the gaming hell, the truth comes out that she is the owner and the woman he wants and protects. But he is conflicted because what he wants goes publically against everything he believes.

To protect her and others, he takes them to his childhood home in Scotland. Passions flare-up, truths are discovered, and the danger follows.

I read it in one sitting, I finished it, and the sun was rising. It happens.

Tropes: Enemies/Friends-to-Lovers, Mystery subplot

TW: This is talk of women sold against their will, but nothing happens on screen and it more conversation, plot moving than anything.

I received an ARC from Netgalley and St. Martins for an honest review.

Chief Justice, Cassius Ramsay, is determined to uncover what’s really going on at London’s gaming hell. Known for his cold, calculating, and unforgiving calls for justice, he barrels his way into Cecelia’s content world.

Cecelia Teague, is the brilliant mathematician of the secret trio of friends, the Red Rogues. Her difficult childhood was interrupted by a mysterious benefactor that provided her a prestigious boarding school and university education. Just as she’s making her way into London society, she inherits a gaming hell.

Her interest in Lord Ramsay’s attentions, turn sour when his assumptions about her are way off the mark. Can the stubborn Scot change his ways and win Cecelia’s affections?

Plenty of emotion and mystery weaved into this regency novel.

All Scot and Bothered is the second book in Kerrigan Byrne’s the Devil You Know trilogy. I read and really enjoyed book 1, How to Love a Duke in Ten Days, and while not entirely necessary, I recommend you read it first for pure enjoyment. The writing is superb.

All Scot and Bothered by Kerrigan Byrne, published by St. Martin's Press, is book two in her Devil You Know Series. Every book is about another couple and can be reada s a stand-alone. Anyway, for best reading experience I recommend to read the books in order.
The story is set in Scotland in the 1800s.
Cecilia is a young girl, prodigy, but shunned by her family and the village people. At age 13 she gets an opportunity to widen her horizon, living an new life - and she grabs it with both hands.
Fast forward, years later she catches the eye of Cassius Ramsay, Lord Chief Justice of the High Court. The 39 year old Lord has nothing to not fall for her. He's smitten with her.
ASAB is a beautiful story full of twists and unexpected turns, a story beautifully written and thought out with characters I connected easily with.
A great read, 4,5 stars.

All Scot and Bothered is the second book in the series and I really enjoyed it. The Hero Ramsey has a tortured past which makes him extremely judgmental. This helps in his job but not his personal life. Cecelia also has lived through many horrors but she has a big heart and sees only the good and possibility in people. The couple is forced together to solve a crime and sparks fly. At first I didn’t like Ramsey. He seems to preachy but Ms. Byrne is a masterful storyteller and the way she explains his story and shows his growth making him good enough for Cecelia was really beautiful. I recommend this book!

I was all Scot and Bothered after finishing this book! What a delight to read. The storyline was so good and kept me entertained right to the end.. I had to stay up to see what happened next. Cass and Cecelia are a perfectly matched pair as it turns out, although both cannot believe that they could ever stand to be in the same room together. A mystery, murder and a bomb are all catalysts in the unleashing of their pent up desires. Two thumbs up!

Oh man I really enjoyed this book as I read it in about a day. I totally bet the next book is going to be about Chandler and Francesca. I just know it.

I absolutely love that Ms. Byrne created a heroine like Cecilia!! She’s plump, smart, witty, wears glasses, and this girl loves chocolate and wine! She’s probably my most favorite character ever!

Then there is a BIG burley Scot who’s as straight laced as they come. He’s also extremely vulnerable and closed off. He needs someone who he can related to, who is kind and can teach him to trust and to really love. And did I say he was BIG and Scottish!!! What curvy girl doesn’t want to be picked up by a big sexy Scot like she’s as light as a feather?

I love the undertone of the role of women in society. Especially in the 1800s women were to be married, have babies and supporter their husbands. The casts of society determine your success and if you’re not of a certain breed you’re undeserving. Cecilia shatters this whole notion. She is who she is and she is unapologetic. Thank you for letting Cecilia give women a voice!

This is the second book in The Devil You Know series. It’s a perfect enemies to lovers historical romance that you will read in one day. Can’t wait to see the next edition of the Red Rogue group get her book! Ready for Frank’s story!!

This book was an ARC read for NetGalley.

I received an Advanced Reader copy from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Cecelia Teague's childhood should have hardened her, but it only intensified her kindness. She spent years enduring Vicar Teague's punishment for the sins of her mother and the rest of the world. She was saved by her Aunt Henrietta who became Cecilia's benefactor. After Henrietta dies, she leaves her legacy and everything she knows to Cecelia. The only problem that stands in her way is the burley, hard-hearted Scotsman, Lord Ramsey, and he wants to destroy what was left to her. This enemies to lovers book was phenomenal. I don't have enough words to say how good it was. Their passion was on fire. Their love was so sweet. The drama and mystery were there. Kerrigan can weave magic with her words. She can transport you to a place you never want to leave. This book had it all. It had drama, mystery, angst, kidnapping, murder, romance, and most importantly love. You come to expect these from Kerrigan, and she didn't disappoint.

I am loving this series! I went back and read How to Love a Duke in 10 days before I started this sequel and I adored both books. They have some of my favorite romance elements: strong female friendships, tortured male heroes, bluestockings. I'm already impatient waiting for the next one!

Lordy, this was a mess. The plot was poorly conceptualised, the characters underdeveloped and while I love most things purple, the Ms Byrne's prose suffered from a serious case of violaceous overdose even though red is the favoured colour of the story - as in The Red Rogues (red-haired heroine and her two best friends who for some reason label themselves as rogues and adopt male pet names), the Crimson Council, the Scarlet Lady (heroine's inherited alter ego). I am familiar with her writing - the dramas, the angst, the embellished prose. What I've sampled in the past, I did enjoy. This unfortunately did not work out for me at all.

The basic gist is that she's an orphan whose university education had been sponsored by a mysterious benefactor, who turned out to be her maternal aunt. When the latter passed away, Cecilia inherits the fortune, her business (gambling hell and more) and becomes the new Scarlet Lady. The hero, Ramsay, is the Lord Chief Justice of the High Court who has spent much of his professional career investigating the Scarlet Lady and her dealings and suspected link to the evil Crimson Council, a shady entity of unknown powerful persons thought to be responsible for the disappearance of young girls and human trafficking. After this rough sketching of the plot, Ms Byrne unfortunately failed to bring her renderings into sharp focus. Instead they remain vague, highly abstract and colourless.

So much didn't make sense. My reading was forever interrupted by me making furious and frustrated notes about the inconsistencies and disjointed plot and huge leaps of inference. That and me nodding off to sleep every few paragraphs.

Cecilia's character was all over the place. Towards Ramsay she was flirtatious, then fearful and intimidated, then back to coquettish, then back to distrustful and scared, all the while feeling lustful of course. Floating adrift and directionless for so long after achieving her university degree in mathematics, she desperately grabbed hold of the notion of running her aunt's establishment without having the faintest idea what she's getting herself into, not knowing whether it might be a front for procuring and selling young girls to the sex trade. Yet she inexplicably and blindly defended this legacy against Ramsay's line of questioning without even taking any time out to investigate the truth. She reacted without blinking to the fact the little girl, her ward that she also inherited from her aunt, shared her surname and instantly developed an attachment to her. No questions asked. She was supposed to keep her identity as the new Scarlet Lady apart from her other life as bookish Cecilia Teague of the Red Rogues fame, but then brought her two fellow rogues to the den for an open inspection, making it obvious to everyone to draw the connection. Then she readily allowed herself to be whisked off to Scotland and deserted her new business mere days after inheriting (still clueless to the running of the place), after she fought so hard with Ramsay to keep it running and viable. And what's with the constant blubbering? Get hold of your emotions, woman!

Ramsay's character did not fare much better. He was the Lord Chief Justice but behaved like a Bow Street Runner, doing all the dirty street work himself. He had apparently been in his role for years and had amassed a fortune after coming from extremely humble beginnings. Who knew Chief Justices earned so much money. However, despite investigating The Scarlet Lady and her business dealings for many years, he was clueless to the fact that Cecilia had no deep (or even superficial) knowledge of the running of the place. In fact, for a guy who rose to the top presumably because he was good at his job, he missed a lot of obvious clues (like the fact that Phoebe was not really Cecilia's daughter for so many reasons). He pressed her for knowledge of who might want to harm her, believing she knew more than she let on, but then in the next scene, he suspected she was responsible for the bomb exploding wrecking part of her business. Why on earth would she want to bomb her own place? He was supposed to be this hard and cynical man but turned out mushier than porridge, considering marriage to her after one kiss and readily confessed his feelings to his brother and Cecilia herself.

Then there's the villain himself, linked to the wicked Crimson Council by the most tenuous of clues (view spoiler) Eh, so should that not put Ramsay himself under suspicion? Or just maybe, they were both fooled by the same guy? And how do we go from this low level suspicion to conclusively declaring him to be the criminal mastermind a few chapters later, when no other evidence had been unearthed since Ramsay himself was distracted by the lovely attractions of Cecilia to continue any further investigative work?

The little girl's speech fluctuated between childlike to highly sophisticated and wise for a seven year old. As for the prose:

"Pain pierced where the heart should be. Tears leaked where her eyes should be. "

Okay, so her heart feels empty now, I get that, but where the hell did her eyes disappear to??? The mental image is seriously freaking me out!

This was my first book of this Series, but I don't feel that mattered. I liked that Lord Ramsey was a more "mature" hero and one of the most stubborn heroes I have come across. Cecelia Teague is a gentle, vulnerable and strong heroine who is impossible not to love. I don't think I have ever read a book that spent so much time talking about, or focusing on the hero's body! The story kept moving along and taking you along for the ride and I enjoyed it. I received this ARC for my honest opinion.

I loved this book, but I’ll begin by stating or won’t be for e Rhône. This book is crazypants. There are bombs, fires, kidnappings, characters who are not what they seem...I feel like Stefan from SNL saying, “This book has EVERYTHING,” but it really does! I loved the overdone-ness of it all, but I know that approach is not for every reader.

*This review has been copied from my blog, literarylovebooks.com*

Age gap romances are my least favorite trope. And yet, Byrne (of course) made it work!

This enemies to lovers/age gap romance ticked all my boxes and some I didn't even know I had! I loved every second of reading this fantastic book.

Our hero, Ramsey, is the worst. He's got reasons- but he's the worst. And then there is Cecilia or Cecil. She is a bright light in the dark world of London. There is an instant attraction and then an instant hate and it worked. It worked sooo good!

What I love out of every grumpy/sunshine romance is when the heroine brings that big, alpha, jerk face to his knees! I live for those scenes. But of course our sweet Cecilia does it in the most kind and loving way.

The hate and then the eventual love these two have for each other burns brighter than the Red Rogues' hair. The banter, the one liners, the epic take downs- Ohhhh- it's my catnip!

I literally could not stop reading. I read until I fell asleep with my kindle on my face. I just had to know what was going to happen next. The story kept me so intrigued that I ignored everything until I finished it.

I feel like Byrne out shinned herself with this one. I was completely blown away by it. This series is quickly becoming one of my most loved. Absolutely spectacular!!!


***Quick note on the cover*** I know authors have little to no control over their covers. SOOO, I'm looking at you St. Martin's. I've said this about other covers and other publishers and I'm going to keep saying it until it stops. Do not use skinny cover models when the character is not skinny herself.
Nope. Stop.
Cecilia is mocked for her weight all her life, she is described as "round", "hefty", "curvy", "voluptuous", "thick", "girthy", "wide"... There are a lot of words to describe that beautiful cover model but none of these specific words can be attributed to her. You wouldn't use a heavy set woman on a cover of a book when the character is described as skinny- so why do the opposite? What is even the need of doing that? If you put things out into the world, you should pay attention to what you ARE putting out into the world.
There are plenty of curvy, beautiful, red-headed women that could have been the model on this cover. I guarantee it. I had this problem with the Chasing Cassandra cover and I have a problem with this one as well.

All's I can say is do better.
***

That's it. End of rant. This book is fabulous. Absolutely fantastic. And I'm anxiously awaiting the next book!

Kerrigan Byrne has a unique touch for creating real, strong women that don't fit the historical romance stereotype and pairing them with men that realize they can be strong but equal with a woman at the same time. Cecilia is a tall, spectacled, full-figured woman who has spent most of her life being belittled for her appearance and her intelligence. Having her two friends at boarding school and her butler (who is more father to her than anything else) taught her she could be valued, but still feels something is missing. When her madam mother dies and bequeaths her a gaming hell it puts her right in the path of Ramsay, who through his own suffering has decided to hold everyone above vice and sin. But what is sin, and who is doing it? Because Cecilia's mother had some very dangerous people on the ropes and now they're after Cecilia - which makes Ramsay rethink what and who is right and wrong, and that opening yourself up to love could make you a stronger, happier person than meting out justice. I love Byrne's unconventional characters and the strong emotions in her stories.

Kerrigan Byrne never disappoints! This book was a quick and enjoyable read. Ramsay and Cecelia romance was just what got me out of my reading slump. Although, I did tend to skim over the long inner monologue most of which seemed to be repetitive.

I do wonder what name Cecilia calls him by. Ramsay? And I do wish Cecilia would've revealed her past to him rather than Jean-Yves.

*ARC sent via netgalley

All Scott and bothered or all hot and bothered. Ramsey and Cecelia leap from the page with their magnetism. I couldn't turn the pages fast enough. They both had their problems and how they worked through each of them to come to a place of togetherness was wonderfully writ. They just clicked and it totally worked.

I have to admit that I think I am incapable of writing a bad review of a book by Kerrigan Byrne, but I think that is because I think she is incapable of writing one. Her prose, character development, and plots are all brilliant. In fact, I actually read a few lines of this one to my husband – and not the steamy sex scenes (of which there were surprisingly few).

In the first few chapters of the book, I had a hard time liking Lord Chief Justice of the High Court Cassius Ramsay. I remembered very little about him from the previous book in the series. In the first few chapters, he was little more than a man who really needed to relax (although several cruder phrases might be more appropriate). I was also uncertain about Cecelia – was she as innocent as she seemed – the question that plagued Ramsay as well. I even wondered if this was the first book that Kerrigan Byrne wouldn’t be able to pull off, but I trusted her and continued reading.

I don’t remember at what point in the story everything fell together, but, as it did with the previous book in the series, well before the halfway point, I was in awe of how perfect everything was. As the two worked together to unravel the plot surrounding the casino Cecelia had inherited from her aunt and the secret code of information that came along with it, it became clear that, together, Ramsay and Cecelia made a stronger whole that they lacked as individuals. Their responses to each other and their circumstances fit the situation and were both logical and consistent with the characters’ history and personality.

This book is definitely better if read after the first in the series, How to Love a Duke in Ten Days. However, if this is your opportunity to start reading the series or a book by Kerrigan Byrne, jump in here without delay.

I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Was so happy to be back with the Red Rogues! There is nothing I love more than smart heroines!! Cecilia was a great character and I really enjoyed this book. There are so many memorable secondary characters, if you can even call them that. The loyalty and devotion these characters have for each other is perfection. I can’t forget about Cassius! I enjoyed watching his character transform into the man Cecilia needed. I can’t wait to see what happens next.

This story is an original of sorts. We have more mature characters and unconventional backgrounds. The hero is straitlaced and is a man on a mission. The heroine has her traumatic childhood experience but was able to become a better person because of it. And despite her modern outlook to learning she is virginal and not too stubborn and outspoken. The story has unexpected twists and turns. And I only wish there was an epilogue.

Such an interesting read !
This was my first time reading a book by Kerrigan Byrne and I really enjoyed her writing style. The characters were easy to follow and they had some great interactions. The storyline was... something to get the imagination going. I thought that this was a good book.
I give it 4 out of 5 stars for the fun characters, interesting plot, and the chemistry :)
*I volunteered to read this book in return for my honest feedback. The thoughts and opinions expressed within are my own.