She will give him what he desires. But first, a small favor . . .

Lady Christina Fairhaven is devoted to her adoptive family—and most protective of her wayward brother.

So when battle-scarred and world-weary Captain Gavin Briggs arrives at her cottage bearing shocking news—that she is the granddaughter of an aged, bad-tempered duke— Christina is stunned . . . temporarily.

She will not meet the duke who abandoned her when she was a child; Gavin will not receive his significant—and much needed—reward. However, should the good Captain agree to help her locate and rescue her endangered sibling, then perhaps . . .

But with a fortune at stake, the road to London is paved with peril. Treachery awaits them . . . not to mention attraction, temptation, and a most unanticipated passion.

Review

I’ve had the pleasure of reading a few of Margo Maguire’s books and always enjoyed a full romp through the settings, characters, plots and twists that produce a satisfying read. Now Brazen, can be listed among them. Maguire’s Brazen picks up the Windermere story of the granddaughters of the Duke of Windermere focusing on Lady Christina Fairhaven in this second of her trilogy on the Windermeres.

When Captain Gavin Briggs, arriving on Lady Fairhaven’s property months after the death of her philandering husband and ongoing blackmail about her believed-to-be deceased brother (Lang), she is preparing for battle and at first sight, shoots Briggs.

Unbeknownst to her, the captain has been employed by her estranged grandfather, the Duke of Windermere, to retrieve his twin granddaughters he cast out when he disowned their mother. Now on his deathbed, he seeks to meet both and bestow upon them, an inheritance. Briggs, seeking his own redemption will receive his payment upon the delivery of both granddaughters to the Duke – Lily already having been found - and now must convince Christina to meet her sister and grandfather.

But Christina is having none of it. She’s determined to do things her way having been made a fool of by her cool, elegant husband whose bad taste- to die in the arms of his mistress – has left her with an unquenchable thirst for independence and shaken self-esteem. Adding misery to her widowhood is an unknown blackmailer who claims to have knowledge of her alleged late brother’s ‘doings.’ Although a rather predictable plot, Maguire plaits a fairly suspenseful flight across the countryside with danger in tow and a smoldering lust to complicate matters. Gavin is reluctantly drawn into the plot to first squelch the blackmailer on one end of the English isle then head to its opposite end to produce Christina to the dying duke in time to collect his reward.

Along the way, they rescue an orphan boy named Theo and thwart members of the notorious Hellfire Club (her cousin Baron Chetwood being one) and its attempts on their lives with some interesting results that keep the reader turning the pages.

While I really enjoyed the read, I would like to have felt there was more of an emotional connection between Gavin and Christina than the incredible sex and obvious lust thrown into the mix of a high-stakes race against time. Maguire bridged the ‘she’s more than a mistress’ aspect pretty well though not completely for me.

But, in fairness, this was a story about Christina so we expected to see more of her and Maguire brings readers along her internal journey beautifully. We feel her sting of betrayal, questioning her womanhood after a cheating husband, the quest for independence after thwarting fortune-seeking suitors and an irresistible pull to the notorious Captain Briggs who awakens this scarred woman.  The story wraps up nicely and definitely leaves us wanting to see the next story – presumably that of meeting her twin Lily and the Duke –to be assured the Windermeres do live happily ever after.

Reviewed by Helena

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