Review: One Night of Temptation (Wicked Dukes Club #6) by Darcy Burke

Print Length: 174 pages

Publisher: Darcy Burke Publishing (June 25, 2019)

From Goodreads.com: Faced with a marriage she can’t abide, Lady Penelope Wakefield takes drastic measures to preserve her freedom. Her brilliant plan is foolproof until a sexy but imperious rector “rescues” her.

Rector Hugh Tarleton has no patience for the Society philanthropists who seek to bestow their pity—and not much else—on his oppressed flock in one of London’s worst neighborhoods. When the daughter of a marquess is kidnapped and brought to the rookery, he vows to protect her, but the temptation to surrender to their mutual desire will certainly ruin them both.

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My Rating: 2 stars out of 5

This is the last book in the Wicked Dukes series, and unfortunately for me, it was the one I liked the least. 

Let me back up a bit. Each book in this series can be read as a stand alone. There are some mentions of prior characters, but its nothing that takes away from the current story, or makes it hard to understand. That wasn't the problem.

The problem is I loathe "insta" romances. The kind where two people meet and all of the sudden they are thinking about ripping each others clothes off, and hearing wedding bells. They know nothing about each other. When you add to it that one of these characters is a rector for crying out loud?  A man who should have known better, but still agrees to go along with a lie? And sleep in the same bed as an unmarried woman that he's just met?Yeah. It just didn't sit right with me. It was too "sudden" and read more like she was trying to find inappropriate ways to show how thankful she was for his rescue. 

I think this story could have been made more enjoyable with a couple of additions and maybe one minor change. From the start we are told that Penelope is trying to fake her own kidnapping in order to appeared ruined so that she can get out of marrying a man old enough to be her Grandfather. When she meets Hugh, she goes on to tell him how horrible her family is to her, but with the exception of two small scenes, we don't get to see that. There is no interaction with her family at all. She doesn't even appear to have any friends either, up until the last few chapters of the book. Why is she so sheltered? I definitely needed more background on her to help her make sense. Especially when I am expected to believe that a girl so sheltered suddenly becomes so flirtatious with a man she just met.

With Hugh, I definitely would have liked to have seen more self-control and resistance from him. And while I definitely enjoyed watching the man her parents picked for her firmly put in his place, I found it hard to believe that Hugh would be the one to do it himself considering all he stood to lose. 

Even then, this was a quick read, and I am sure there is still a wide audience who enjoys fast romances with unconventional characters. I would read more from this author.

DISCLAIMER: I received a complimentary copy of this novel in exchange for my honest review. This has not affected my review in any way. All thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are 100% my own.

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                         One Night of Temptation is available from Amazon.com