Tuesday, August 17, 2010

WICKED INTENTIONS by Elizabeth Hoyt

Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Date published: August 2010
ISBN: 978-0-44655894-5
August 2010
Historical Romance
Mass Market Paperback
Reviewed by Susan
Obtained by Publisher


Lazarus Huntington, Lord Caire is searching for the killer of his mistress. His search is hampered by his lack of knowledge of the area, St. Giles. Temperance Dews knows the location well. She and her family operate a foundling home for abandoned children. The home is in need of funds to continue operations and Lord Caire can help her with it.

Temperance is a woman who berates herself for a mistake she made. She is constantly trying to make up for this and has thrown herself into taking care of the unwanted children. Lazarus also has issues. He is unable to show love and affection. With the death of his mistress, he feels compelled to find her killer to make up for his deficiency. Temperance and Lazarus make an intriguing couple. They are complex characters with flaws. It is a journey of two damaged souls as they find a way to help and heal each other. Ms. Hoyt does a good job of delineating these characters. Although I liked the lead couple, they did not captivate me as I didn’t believe their motivation behind their actions. Lazarus didn’t care about his mistress as he used her purely as a sex object but yet, he turns his life upside-down to find her killer. Would a person do that if he truly didn’t care about this person on some level? I just found it a little too far-fetched. The same goes for Temperance’s reaction to her indiscretion.

I have thoroughly enjoyed Ms. Hoyts’ previous books and this one will definitely satisfy her fans. It is the beginning to a new series and while it didn’t wow me – it was still a decent read.

This is an objective review and not an endorsement of this book.

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