The Underbelly of London | Beyond Scandal and Desire by Lorraine Heath [ARC Review]

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Lorraine Heath is one of my favorite historical romance authors (as evidenced by her being my most read author in 2017) and she did not disappoint! Beyond Scandal and Desire is the first book in her newest series Sins for All Seasons and what an amazing story it is!

The Sins for All Seasons series is about six illegitimate babies who were handed over to a baby farmer. I hope the series will include all 6 of them because the little snippets that I’ve seen of them in this book piqued my interest!

Baby Farming, Oh My!

Lorraine Heath knows how to write stories featuring the underbelly of London. Her Scoundrels of St. James series is actually one of my favorites. Anyway, I had seen a documentary about baby farms a couple of years ago and apparently, this was very prevalent during the Victorian period. So I was excited when I found out that Lorraine Heath was delving in into the practice!

The Anti-Hero

Mick Trewlove knew who his father is and is out for revenge! His plan: ruin his half-brother’s betrothed! Now, I am a sucker for anti-heroes and Mick is a classic one! Of course, he was ruthless but he does have his reasons.

Lady Aslyn longs for adventure and I understood her dilemma. She was the perfect daughter who was brought up to marry a perfect gentleman but she wanted more. This was also interesting because her betrothed is not evil and I did feel bad for him, actually. But it was already apparent in the first scene that Aslyn wasn’t the woman for him.

The Twist in the End, though!

There was a twist that I DID NOT see coming! And I actually don’t know what I think about the revelations. On the other hand, it felt over the top and dramatic but if I’m looking at in based on reality? Well, I’m not sure the outcome would be the same.

The Story Dragged in Places

Parts of the story dragged a little bit but I didn’t have a big problem with it since they were few and far between. And when the story picked back up, boy did it pick up!

Looking forward to the rest of the series

I am definitely looking forward to the rest of the series! I ‘m super excited that Mick’s sister Gillie is the next one who gets her own HEA because she does appear in Beyond Scandal and Desire quite often.

Recommendations

I thoroughly enjoyed Mick and Aslyn’s romance even though the story dragged in places. I definitely recommend this book to fans of Victorian Historical Romance and of course, Lorraine Heath.

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Have you heard anything about baby farming?

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