London's Wicked Affair

Midnight Secrets, Book 1

By: Anabelle Bryant

Narrated by: Victoria Aston

Length: 8 hrs and 48 mins

Publisher's summary

In Anabelle Bryant's wickedly romantic new series, secrets and seduction go hand in hand....

Lunden Beckford, duke of Scarsdale, has chosen to exile himself far from London, with its painful memories and cruel gossip. Forced back to town on business, he's eager to make his stay as brief as possible. But first, he must honor his promise to find a suitable husband for his friend's little sister.

On one hand, Amelia Strathmore has grown into a stunning, statuesque beauty. On the other, the willful chit is more likely to scandalize a drawing room with her outspoken opinions than blush prettily. At least she agrees to accept his help - if he fulfills certain conditions....

Though duty-bound to marry, Amelia longs to secretly enjoy some of life's freedoms first. In this, as in many things, Lunden proves an excellent guide. In fact, Amelia's girlhood admiration for her brother's friend is fast becoming something far less innocent.

Lunden believes he's known too much darkness to offer any woman happiness. Yet Amelia is starting to see how much pleasure can lie within the right partnership - especially if one is willing to be a little wicked....

Contains mature themes.

©2018 Anabelle Bryant (P)2018 Tantor

Falling for your friend’s sibling is one of my favorite tropes!

This is the second time around for me with this book and I enjoyed it so much both times. The first time I read and then this time I listened. I loved the storyline and I liked the narrator as she was easy to follow.

Great read

I love London’s mellowness but I wish he would of fought back to Amelia’s brother . Also I’m said there was no epilogue!! I need those !!
Did London and Matthew make up and apologize. Did they have kids ? Where did they end of living ? What happened to Charlotte?? Poor girl was miserable ... overall I liked the story
Thank you !

Excellent beginning to a new series by the talented Anabelle Bryant!

Loved this story, the twists and turns, and the well written characters. Lunden and Amelia's love story is to die for. They're drawn to each other like a moth to a flame, but Lunden believes he's wrong for Amelia. Plus, he promised her brother he would help him find her a suitable husband! The attraction between them is powerful and the sexual tension is off the charts. Along with the romance there is plenty of intrigue and you'll probably forego sleep (as I did) to find out what happens. Enjoy!

One moment changes everything....

One reviewer had nothing but complaints, she obviously doesn’t pay much attention when listening to a book because each of her complaints were actually effectively dealt with as part of the story line! That’s how it’s done.... creating the plot, filling it out, making reason for action and choice... that’s called writing. But you have to actually read or listen before you state opinions on only a small perception of what the story was....

This was a good book. Not a very good book or a great book or an ok book, but a good book. There was room for more... I kind of missed that more. It made me mad at one point, I mean quite angry!.... I wanted that nasty man to get his comeuppance! but it all works out in the end, the HEA that makes a romance a romance.

Touchy subject for the time, handled well.

Not much heat, plenty of angst.

Definitely don’t regret it, neither will you I hope.

Good narration too.

Interesting story

This story was interesting though it seemed a bit vague at times. I struggled to follow the motivation of the hero. However, what really pulled me out of the story, time and again, was the language. I am not certain of the author's intent when she says thing such as "her eyes mesmerized his face" as she gazes at the hero while he sleeps. I think she meant memorized.

not the best but still good

I didn't love this story, but I did like it. there were parts that were amusing and overall it was sweet . I got this book as part of the romance package. the second and third books about supporting characters will have to be bought... I bought book two but haven't started it
the narrator: sometimes it was hard to tell who was supposed to be talking ( I would have to wait for a "Matt says" or" Amelia asked" and then I'd be like oh now it makes sense)her voices tended towards the feminine more often than not. her voices weren't great.
IDK if this is an authors error or narrator but she did keep referring to the ducal property as a dooky not a dukedom or duchy. it was weird.

Wonderful story with interesting characters

Lunden was such a broken man. My heart went out to him. He needed to find out that love may hurt but was a necessity. I loved Amelia's determination to find her own husband and to torment her brother somewhat for his choices for her. Her views were based on what she saw around her, including the bad. Amelia and Lunden connected so strongly, but neither recognized it for what it was. The secondary characters also need healing and made the story that much better. I look forward to Matthew and Charlotte finding their respective HEAs (hopefully they will come). I recommend this story, and I look forward to more in this series.

I had the pleasure of listening to this story in audiobook form. The story was given added dimension by Victoria Aston. She gave wonderful life to these characters and it reminded me why I liked the story in the first place.

Love is always going to prevail over stubbornness

I really enjoyed the characters. The story was on point filled with frustration and passion, and the narrator did a great job bringing each character to life. 

Ridiculous & unbelievable

I could not understand this plot. The hero has been away from London for 10 years. The minute he arrives, his friend asks him to help find a husband for his sister ( how, as he has been out of touch for a decade). The sister /heroine meets him the first day and gives him a list of all the things she wants to do before getting married ( a rip off of 9 rules to break when romancing a rake). How does she think he will be okay with this request, but of course the hero does what ever the heroine wants. She is a bit spoilt for thinking she will always get her way.
Then the brother lets the hero stay in the same house as the sister/heroine with no chaperone. This is just out of character for the regency era. The h/h keep going out alone to do the items on the heroine's list, but no one seems to care about reputations.
If these things are not annoying enough , the hero keeps having internal lustful dialogue about how beautiful the heroine is and that he should not be alone with her. Of course that doesn't stop the couple and they end up in bed. The brother finds them ( because the heroine has no control and jumps out of her hiding spot to "get caught"). It's all too stupid and I gave up 3 hours in....just can't care enough about these characters to continue. I would have been better off to re-read a Garwood, Hoyt or Kleypas. A terrible waste of a credit. Don't bother with this book.

Wishing this will end

Started out promising but then I spent the last half of the book wishing it would end...