Notorious – Nicola Cornick

When the ton’s most notorious heartbreaker…
Dangerously seductive and sinfully beautiful, Susanna Burney is society’s most sought after matchbreaker. Paid by wealthy parents to part unsuitable couples, she’s never yet failed to accomplish her mission of diverting a groom-to-be. Until her final assignment brings her face-to-face with the man who’d once taught her an intimate lesson in heartache….

Let the seduction begin!

I was pleasantly surprised by this one.  I wasn’t sure what to expect when I got it from NetGalley, especially since I hadn’t read any of the other books in the series.  But it turns out you really didn’t need to read those to enjoy this one.

The last thing Susanna Burney expected when she accepted her latest assignment was to find James Devlin.  She’d last seen him when she was seventeen, heartbroken and leaving him.  In the years since, she’s done what’s she’s needed to in order to ensure her welfare and that of her two wards.

James Devlin thought he finally had everything he wanted.  He was engaged to an heiress and hoping to find his place in society.  Since the time of his father’s death, he has been striving to find his place in the world and hoping that place would gain him enough money where he wouldn’t need to worry anymore.  Although bored with the life amongst the ton, this was what he had been working towards.  His world is turned upside down when he glances across the ballroom to see the Susanna.  She was the one woman he thought he had loved and the one that left him.

Dev and Susanna circle around each other quite a bit.  She’s running from her past, hoping Dev won’t tell everyone how she knows him and ruin her chance at earning enough money to start a new life.  Dev’s determined to find out why she is trying to break up the pending betrothal of his sister, Chessie, with Fitzwilliam Alton while fighting his growing attraction to her and keep his fiancee happy.  All the while, Susanna is hiding secrets from Dev about what exactly happened to her when she left him.

I didn’t enjoy the secondary characters as much, especially Fitz and Chessie.  I had hoped there was something devious going on with Chessie when she was running off for her secret rendevous, but was really disappointed with that outcome.  Same with Emma and Bradshaw (which was the only point in the story where I thought I was missing something from the other books).

4 Cocktails