This is the first of Stephnie Lauren's Cynster series and possiblly the best. The characters are well developed and endearing, the plot imaginative and the bedroom scenes appropirately steamy. I must confess to having read this one several times. If you like humor, regency romances and intelligent and passionate heroes and heroines, this one is for you.

My rule of thumb is to only write reviews on books I either really love or really hate. I figured no one would want to read a luke-warm review on a book that the reviewer is clearly luke-warm about. So it's with this caveat that I write a review about a book I was pretty ambivalent about.

What I like about this book: I am such a sucker for a book whose plot thrusts hero and heroine into a compromising situation that forces them to be together. And if the guy falls in love first, as it so rarely occurs and does so in this book, then all the better. I also loved the raw, sexual tension between Honoria, the beautiful, sensible heroine and Devil, the rugged, alpha hero. I really liked the camaraderie between Devil and his male cousins, and I especially liked the author's subtle hints that it's the Cynster women, not the males, who are the bosses of the brood. The suspensefilled, subplot was promising at first, but more on that below...

What I didn't like: The subplot which was to be the catalyst for the main plot ended up overwhelming the novel and wasn't so mysterious after all. I figured out who the bad guy was pretty much from his first introduction into the story. It was that obvious. Each time the topic of the "mysterious" murderer came up, I was tempted to skim whole pages at a time. The subplot also detracted from the main one as if the author couldn't figure out which one to focus on. If the book had focused more on the main plot i.e. the main characters' internal conflict, it would have been far more enjoyable. When the murderer revealed his dastardly plan, I was extremely confused. I thought the law of primogenitor dictated entailed inheritances??? I found the nicknames of the various cousins interesting, but would have liked more of a background into how they each earned their names. I didn't like this book enough to read the whole series to find out, so oh well. Some of the male cousins' nicknames were synonymous with each other and I wondered if it was because they were all interchangeable, cookie-cutter paragons of each other. Even Honoria's brother's personality was indistinguishable from the poorly developed characters of the secondary Cynster males in the book.

Because I liked the main characters and the promising main plot so much, I really wanted to give this book 5 stars. But this book's ending really didn't live up to it's earlier promise. I kept vascillating between rating it 3 or 4 stars, and in the end I relented with 3. I was so disappointed, I left this book in a hotel bedside table drawer rather than lug it back home with me.

Yes, like many people I have a compulsion: I must finish books I start. I also love families in historical romances. This was a huge family of hunky men, so I thought I had to give it a chance. Big mistake. The writing is not as good as many other writers and there are tons of love scenes and little other substance to the book. I was just not entertained, but I still read 4 more of her books hoping that she just wrote a few bad ones at the start. Well, guess what they all stink. The characters are dull, the plot boring and the writing makes it all the more painfull. Save yourself some time and don't read this book.

A well-crafted foray into historical romance with a murder mystery to spice up the interactions. Honoria Prudence, the heroine, carried a sadness from her childhood into her adult years. Top that off with a true streak of independence and longing for adventure and you have an intriguing love interest for a duke who had no idea he was ready for life-changing romance.