A Lady Never Lies by Juliana Gray

Description:
Lady Alexandra Morley, an alluring widow, is desperate to devise a plan to reverse her fortunes. When fate lands her in the arms of Phineas “Finn” Burke, an attractive inventor, she despairs of ever getting what she needs…until they kiss.

Finn has always been impervious to the charms of the female species, intent only on perfecting his “horseless carriage” engine. He never dreamed he’d meet a woman like Alexandra, who is as stubborn as she is comely. Despite the brewing scandal, Finn longs to make Alexandra his wife, but he must first convince the maddening lady that their love is the only thing that matters.

Review:

A Lady Never Lies is the debut novel of Juliana Gray, and her first book in her Affairs by the Moonlight Trilogy.  This is a historical romance that takes place in Italy around the time period of 1890.  As described on Gray’s website…
Three English ladies on a holiday escape. Three dashing bachelors competing in a wager to remain chaste. Three scandalous affairs in an enchanted castle.

Our heroine in A Lady Never Lies is Lady Alexandra Morley, who is widowed and is running away from her home in London to avoid her creditors.  Having been tricked by a nephew into investing in a company going bankrupt, Alexandra is desperate to find a way to salvage the company.  She, her sister and cousin head for a castle near Florence, Italy, where no one would find them.  Alexandra is also protecting her sister, who is also running away from an abusive husband. 

Finn (Phineas) Burke is a successful and wealthy inventor, who makes a deal with his two friends, the Duke of Wallingford and his brother Lord Roland to take a yearly leave from partying every night, and become abstinence for one year.  Finn wants to work on his new invention, an electric car, as he is scheduled to race later in the year, which he is determined to win.  Finn has created his own success, but is not as flamboyant or reckless with woman, like the Wallingford brothers. However, Finn convinces them they need to take this one year leave to save themselves, and they leave London to a castle in Italy.

Of course, along the way, the ladies and the gentleman meet, and find themselves heading for the same castle.  A beat up old castle as it is.  They are forced to share, with each taking a different wing and working together to fix up the place. 

Despite his determination to steer clear of the women, Finn finds himself falling in love with Alexandra, and she with him.  Very early on, I have to admit, I was not crazy about Alexandra, who came across like a rich scheming and selfish snobbish lady.  

But that did not last long.  As Alexandra begins to show interest, perhaps to help her learn more about what Finn is doing, she does begin to fall for Finn.  He, who normally is only interested in his invention, tries his best to avoid Alexandra at all costs.  But he falls hopelessly in love with her.   

This was such a wonderful romance, with a lot of humor and fun watching them hide their attraction from others, as well as the witty comments all around.  The sexual scenes were pretty steamy, but well done, and also fun to see Alexandra truly learning what sex was all about. She was married to Lord Morley, an elder gentleman, and there with little sex between them. But Finn and Alexandra’s romance was beautifully done, and I thoroughly enjoyed watching them fall deeper and deeper in love. 

There was a short glitch, where Finn begins to suspect that perhaps Alexandra was hiding something, and was using him. Alexandra, who was trying to salvage the Motor Company, which her money was tied up with, did hope to possibly learn more from Finn, but she was not using him.  She was totally in love with him.  But Finn leaves the castle, and Alexandra is heartbroken, not knowing why or where he was.  The last ¼ of the book had a wonderful adventure, with a wild car race, with both Finn and Alexandra driving. It was a lot of fun, and this book had quite a bit of humor in it.  I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and the wonderful fun romance of Finn and Alexandra.  Juliana Gray has done a wonderful job writing this book, keeping us interested almost from the start, and I look forward to the next two books, which will most certainly be about the other two couples. If you want a fun romance, with sexual tones, then this is the book for you. 

Reviewed by Barb

Copy provided by publisher