Dangers of Deceiving a Viscount Book

****3.5 stars****

I'm glad I read this series until the end, otherwise I would have missed Phoebe's story. I believe her storyline is the most interesting one. I got hooked in the first pages and couldn't put it down until I reached the very last one.

Lady Phoebe Fairchild, daughter of the Late Earl of Bingley, sister to the Marchioness of Middleton and cousin to the Princess of Powys, is being blackmailed by her ruthless employer, Mrs Ramsey, into working as Madame Dupree, a fake identity Phoebe had created in order to be able to work as a modiste. As a consequence, she is forced to visit the estate of William Darby, the Viscount of Summerfield, to design ball gowns for his ill-mannered and undisciplined sisters where she assumes Madame Dupree's identity where she experiences first-hand life as a servant.

William has just returned from 6 years of extensive travel around the world and finds his home in havoc; his father had become an infirm and has been unable to tend to his siblings, who have become unruly, they shout and hit each other at every turn (the youngest being 17 years old...). As such, he finds himself in need to hire the best modiste in London, Madame Dupree, in the hopes of getting his sisters married and settled.

The attraction between them is obvious and I like how William fights his feelings for Phoebe because he knows that his responsibilities towards his family and his estate would not be compatible with bedding a "servant". I also really liked how Phoebe is struggling with being treated as someone of inferior rank.

However, I'm not too sure the blackmail part was very convincing. If Mrs Ramsey had blackmailed her into doing something for her that one time, what would prevent her to keep doing it forever ? If Phoebe had thought things through, she probably wouldn't have gone with it... But in the end, I'm glad she got blackmailed and we got to meet William Darby a.k.a Viscount of Sommerfield <3 He is the dreamiest of all the Desperate Debutantes series :)

The only reason it got 3.5 stars instead of 4 is because there was a bit too much drama at the end...