Review: The Lady’s Disgrace – Callie Hutton

A lady is nothing without her reputation. Jilted and humiliated by her once-betrothed, Lady Abigail Lacey is the laughingstock of London. Worse still, the humiliation is now reflecting badly on her family. Now her brother, the Duke of Manchester, is desperate… until he finds a way to rescue his sister’s damaged reputation, and remove her from the glare of disapproving society.

He must marry her off. Quickly.

When Rector Joseph Fox drops by the Lacey household, he certainly didn’t expect to leave as a man engaged to a long-time family friend! Yet while he never could have aspired to have her, Lady Abigail always ignited a forbidden longing in him. But Abigail has one condition—their marriage is to be void of passion or physical pleasures. Faced with a platonic marriage of convenience, Joseph is determined to embark on a sensuous adventure with only one goal: to seduce his new wife..

Series: Marriage Mart Mayhem #3
Release Date: September 8th 2014
Publisher: Entangled: Scandalous
Source: Manic Readers
Reviewer: Michelle
Rating: 4

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Reviewer’s Thoughts

This book is the third book in the Marriage Mart Mayhem series.  I did not read the previous books.  There were some references to the previous books, but I had no difficulty reading this book as a standalone.

I immediately fell in love with the storyline.  Lady Abigail Lacey is determined to marry for love.  She finds her love match with Darius, Earl of Redgrave.  She becomes betrothed to him and awaits the day that she can be his wife.  While she is having dreams of happily ever after the Earl of Redgrave elopes with someone else leaving Abigail brokenhearted and disgraced.  Her brother is Drake the Duke of Manchester.  Drake is determined to save his sister from being disgraced.  He hatches a plan to have his childhood friend, Rector Joseph Fox, marry his sister Abigail.  After the marriage Joseph struggles to keep Abigail safe from someone determined to harm her.  He also struggles to convince Abigail to give their marriage a real chance.  Fortunately, Abigail and Joseph have white hot chemistry.  Through danger, disappointments, and misunderstandings Abigail and Joseph live out their happily ever after.

The character development was a little problematic for me.  Abigail was very emotional and irrational.  First, she wanted to be intimate with Joseph for the sake of a child.  After being married she changes her mind and decides that she will refuse to be intimate with Joseph. Then she gets upset because Joseph doesn’t beg her to be intimate with him.  She deliberately says hurtful things to him.  I couldn’t identify with her character at all.  I know that women are portrayed as being illogical and unpredictable, and this book embodied those negative stereotypes in Abigail.  Joseph bent over backwards to try to please Abigail.  I liked that he was firm about the things that really meant the most to him.  Joseph was honorable, dependable, protective, and loving.  He was my favorite character in the book.  I was able to get past most of Abigail’s antics because of the way that Joseph handled her.  So the author did a great job of balancing Abigail’s personality quirks with Joseph’s laid back personality.

The storyline is a little slow initially, but it really picks up and moves at a good pace after their marriage. The background characters added depth to the story.  I enjoyed the story, and I plan to read other books by this author.