Surrender to Sin by Nicola Davidson – a Review

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Description:
To save her, he must ruin her.

Lord Sebastian St. John, dedicated bachelor and a co-owner of Fallen, the most scandalous pleasure club in London, is known as Sin for good reason. Orphaned by a shocking accident, Sin long ago vowed a life of solitude and
decadence. Yet when Lady Grace Carrington begs for his help destroying her reputation, Sin can’t turn the ton’s most proper lady away.

Obedient daughter, wife, and young widow, Grace has had enough of being controlled. After her father arranges a second loveless marriage to an eminently respectable ancient, Grace plans a fortnight of defiance and self-ruination to stop the wedding. But as Grace enters the heady, risky world of an affair with Sin, she finds herself inexplicably drawn to him— and she soon realizes two weeks won’t be nearly enough.

Review:

Surrender to Sin is book one of The Fallen Series by Nicola Davidson.  Lady Grace Carrington has found herself in the most unsavory of predicaments. Recently widowed her father has arranged another loveless marriage for her with none other than Lord Baxter.  Lord Baxter is a prudish, stuffy old man who Lady Grace has no desire to marry.  She has already suffered through one loveless marriage and now that she is widowed she has no desire to peruse another marriage as bad as her first. But when Lady Grace confesses to her maid-companion Nell, they set about with a diabolical plan to ruin Lady Grace’s reputation to the point where Lord Baxter will no longer want or desire her, thus calling off the engagement.   

But plan involves Lord Sebastian St. John – known better around town as Sin.  Sin is part owner of Fallen; a private pleasure club so exclusive that only the richest, highest ranking members of England society can apply for membership.  While in London getting new gowns made, she only has a fortnight for the plan to come to fruition. Lady Grace is strong willed, but has fulfilled her duties as an obedient wife.  With the passing of her husband, she has now set her sights on living her life for herself. Doing what it is she would like to do. Her engagement to Lord Baxter by her father is the last thing she wants.  So, she sets out to find this man called Sin and that is exactly what she does – in more ways than one.

After years of being in an unhappy marriage, followed by a year of mourning for her late husband, Lady Grace was ready to explore the world and find herself a proper lover, one that she could explore her sexual freedom with.  The prospect of having to marry Lord Baxter put and end to all of that.  She knew the only way out of it was to stage a scandal that would repulse Lord Baxter and lead to him ending their engagement.  But if a scandal  meant the ruin of her reputation it would be well worth it.  There is no way she is going to live her life in a loveless, adventure less marriage again.  But once she entered Fallen while seeking out Lord Sebastian her life would be forever changed.  Lord Sebastian was exactly what she had been naughtily daydreaming about for years.   He was the exact man that caught her eye at Hyde Park years ago and she had daydreamed about the wonderfully lusty things they could possibly do together.  But now he was in front of her, and she was about to ask him to participate in  a scandal to save her from her engagement.  Every part of her body screamed to attention the moment he walked into the room.  And she had played the obedient wife, dutiful daughter for far to long.   It was time to ruin her reputation and she is going to enjoy every minute of it, especially with Sin.            

Lord Sebastian may be part owner of The Fallen, but he is also a gentleman.  Once he found out that Lady Grace is betrothed to Lord Baxter, he will do whatever it takes to keep the marriage from happening. His history with Lord Baxter requires that he step in to help.   But what starts out as helping her to ruin her reputation and end her engagement, soon turns into so much more.  He soon wants to do whatever he can to help Lady Grace.  With that he also realizes that once he destroys her engagement he may never see her again.  And that is not a risk he is willing to take.  After scandal upon scandal they created does not sway Lord Baxter, they soon realize that the only way to end it once and for all is to put on a full public sexual display at Fallen.  And while this will surely mean the ruination of her reputation she no longer cares. She must end this engagement.

This story was wonderfully written and a lovely historical era piece, with bunches of erotica thrown in.  An enjoyable story that makes you root for the good guys and pray that the bad guy gets put in his place.  And that he does.  I look forward to reading more in this series as the secondary characters leave you wanting to know their stories and where Fallen will take them.  

Reviewed by Erin

Copy provided by Publisher