His Sinful Secret: Notorious Bachelors Book

4.5 stars.

I created two new shelves after reading this regency romance: The Pathetic OW and the Pump & Dump OW. The OW in this novel was actually a former OW, because the H had ended their affair YEARS ago. However, I gotta say that this hero must have had some Love Potion Number 9 in his penis because he has this bitch Antonia ( OW ) mooning over his dick and obsessing over him even though he hasn't touched her in years. She has a regular sex buddy but still claims to be desperately in love with the H. She was in a serious depression on the day of his wedding to the heroine and had to drink herself to sleep on his wedding night because she couldn't bear to think of him making love to his beautiful young bride. Damn but she was filled with some angsty jealousy over the hero. She was mostly pathetic because the H was not tempted by her dubious charms at all. He acknowledged her attractiveness but she not longer excited him at all. Hell, he had found an English husband for her to marry - a guy 3 times older ! If the H had loved her, would he have wanted her to marry another man? The H is not even jealous or bothered by Antonia's other men. This bitch should have seen the writing on the wall from then but nope. She still persisted in hoping he would return to her arms and declare true love. 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 In another author's imagination, maybe this OW would have been heroine. Who knows? The ingredients were there: they had met years before in Spain when he saved her and she rewarded him by giving him loads of sex. Unfortunately for Antonia, the role of heroine will not be hers even if she acts as if she thinks she should be the heroine. I know some readers might actually like Antonia and feel sorry for her but I just couldn't tolerate her. I know she suffered a lot and lost her entire family in Spain but she just expected too much from Michael. She also had no boundaries when it came to interfering in the lives of the H and heroine. She became so obsessed with wanting to find out everything about the heroine that she conned the H into letting her act like a part time bodyguard/protector for Julianne. The one redeeming thing she did do, at the end, however, is to play an instrumental role in saving Julianne's life from another crazy stalking bitch. I give her some kudos for that but I still hated her because she felt that Michael belonged to her.

Now to our beautiful heroine Julianne. She was betrothed to the hero's older brother but he died and so the H inherited not only the title of Marquess and became heir to the Dukedom, but also got to marry the heroine. Now the second reason I think this H has got Love Potion #9 in his penis is because the heroine hadn't really felt much for him until the HOT wedding night. She didn't really know him much since he'd been away on the Continent fighting Napoleon's rat bastard soldiers, so her feelings were kinda neutral until he got down and dirty on the wedding night. That was sexy ! It was the most beautiful wedding night scene, written from the POV of both characters. After the sexy wedding night, the heroine became addicted to the H.

The H reminded me a bit of Tor from The Chief by Monica McCarty - not in physical appearance but in attitude to marriage. He treated Julianne the same way Tor had done to Christina: as a sexual bedmate. However, in both novels the heroes were unable to maintain that wall they had built around their hearts. The fall of an alpha male is always a great thing to see. Michael tried so hard to resist Julianne but keeps wanting to spend more and time with her - time that doesn't only include sex. He also provides a bodyguard for her because someone is trying to kill him and he's afraid that they may target her too.

There's also a spy story involved because of the H's other job and a secret child that his dead brother had fathered with some dirty whore who treated the little girl like crap. It was sad to see the scenes where the heroine would visit the poor child and the nasty evil whore mother would be primarily concerned with getting money from Julianne. That woman didn't even give the child any attention or affection. She deserved to be gutted like fish for treating an innocent little girl like that. The heroine was the one who knew about the kid's existence and she was the one who bravely saved the little tyke from her cruel monster of a mother. Julianne was a veritable saint. I'm jealous. She's another too sweet for words type of heroine. It's Julianne who convinces Michael that they should adopt the little girl and raise her in their family rather than leave her to be brought up by paid strangers.

This was a great story and I would have given it 5 stars if Lawrence had dumped Antonia's ass and found a nicer woman. Lawrence was a really wonderful man. He could have been a hero in a future novel. I almost wished the author had given him his own novel with another woman. That pathetic bitch Antonia didn't deserve such a loyal man since she used him for sex while openly stating how much she loved the hero. She had incorrectly believed that the H, Michael, was the type of man who would be unable to ever love a woman. When she realized he'd fallen in love with his wife Julianne, she finally packed her bags and set sail for foreign shores. Good riddance to the bitch. I would have hated to have her stay in England and keep mooning after Michael's Love Potion filled penis. 😆🤣