Then Comes Seduction

If you like reading romances, the name Mary Balogh is always a good choice. Creating families, where each member gets his or her own love story, is her main theme. After her "Slightly ...." and "Simply ...."- books this one is the second in a series about the Huxtable Family. The Huxtables are a very close, loving family consisting of three sisters and a young brother, who totally unexpectedly becomes the Earl of Merton. At the age of twenty his youngest sister Katherine becomes the main object in a wager made by some drunken young gentlemen: the irresistable rake Jasper Finley, Baron Montford, has to seduce her within a fortnight to win his wager. At Katherine's and Jasper's first meeting at Vauxhall he seems to win very easily, but suddenly he gives up and disappears ..... until they meet again three years later. Although Katherine tries to avoid him, she can't help being attracted to him. Jasper on the other hand loves their wiitty battles of words and seeks her company whereever they meet. A malicious distant relative of Jasper succeeds in turning the old wager and their casual meetings into a scandal, where there is but one way out: marriage! Can such a forced marriage work out for Katherine, who is determined to settle for nothing but love? Mary Balogh succeeds again in creating strong, amiable characters and a nice, entertaining story with a good plot, captivating from the first page.