SWEETEST SCOUNDREL by Elizabeth Hoyt
(November 24, 2015; Grand Central Publishing Mass Market; Maiden Lane Series)
SHE'S TAKING CHARGEPrim, proper, and thrifty, Eve Dinwoody is all business when it comes to protecting her brother's investment. But when she agrees to control the purse strings of London's premier pleasure garden, Harte's Folly, she finds herself butting heads with an infuriating scoundrel who can't be controlled.
HE'S RUNNING THE SHOW
Bawdy and bold, Asa Makepeace doesn't have time for a penny-pinching prude like Eve. As the garden's larger-than-life owner, he's already dealing with self-centered sopranos and temperamental tenors. He's not about to let an aristocratic woman boss him around . . . no matter how enticing she is.
BUT LOVE CONQUERS ALL
In spite of her lack of theatrical experience-and her fiery clashes with Asa-Eve is determined to turn Harte's Folly into a smashing success. But the harder she tries to manage the stubborn rake, the harder it is to ignore his seductive charm and raw magnetism. There's no denying the smoldering fire between them-and trying to put it out would be the greatest folly of all . . .
HE'S RUNNING THE SHOW
Bawdy and bold, Asa Makepeace doesn't have time for a penny-pinching prude like Eve. As the garden's larger-than-life owner, he's already dealing with self-centered sopranos and temperamental tenors. He's not about to let an aristocratic woman boss him around . . . no matter how enticing she is.
BUT LOVE CONQUERS ALL
In spite of her lack of theatrical experience-and her fiery clashes with Asa-Eve is determined to turn Harte's Folly into a smashing success. But the harder she tries to manage the stubborn rake, the harder it is to ignore his seductive charm and raw magnetism. There's no denying the smoldering fire between them-and trying to put it out would be the greatest folly of all . . .
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Q&A with Elizabeth Hoyt
1
Q. What scene from SWEETEST SCOUNDREL was the most fun to write?
A. The carriage scene. ;-)
2
Q. What can you tell us about Eve and Asa that we won’t find in the book?
A. Ooo! Good question. Well, it’s not explicitly on the page, but they’re both rather lonely people. Eve is the bastard daughter of a duke and thus in a socially awkward position. She also is shy and retiring for other reasons. Asa is the owner/manager of a pleasure garden and he’s surrounded by a lot of people but they’re mostly his employees. Also he’s estranged from his family. So, two people, lonely in their own way—and in Asa’s case probably totally unaware of it—which make them finding each other and falling in love even sweeter.
3
Q. Pets, usually dogs, feature in your novels. Do your own pets serve as the inspiration for their antics? (We all know Miss Puppy Pie can be a troublemaker!)
A. Of course! We have three dogs so I have plenty of inspiration: Darla, a Bassador, Rue a Rat Terrier, and Ellie, aka, Miss Puppy Pie who is an Italian Greyhound and by far the most goofy of the three. You can read about all three dogs—and my dog characters—on the Extras page of my website: http://www.elizabethhoyt.com/extras/ Miss Puppy Pie appears regularly on my Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/ElizabethHoytBooks
4
Q. If you could meet anyone from the past or the future, who would it be?
A. Well, at the moment, J.K. Rowling. I’ve got a woman-crush on her writing and would love to sit and talk to her. She switches POV in a scene and doesn’t give a damn.
5
Q. What’s next for you?
A. I’m finishing up the next Maiden Lane series book: Duke of Sin, out June of 2016. This is the Duke of Montgomery’s book and it was tons of fun to write. I think readers will really enjoy it. ;-)
MY REVIEW
Unfortunately, I have not finished reading the book, but I have to say, I LOVE what I am reading so far.
I liked Eve in this book. When she was introduced in Dearest Rogue, I did not care for her much. She helped lure Phoebe into a trap. Sure she was doing it out of love, and she told the truth in the end. It still does not erase what she did to poor, strong willed Phoebe.
This book however, I can no understand why she did what she did and I also forgive her. I love the Maiden Lane Series, (even though I've only read two and a half of the series) and am very glad to know what Asa was so secretive about.
Asa was introduced in the very first book. He was the elusive brother of the family that no one truly knew what he did. But now we know and it is awesome. Two broken souls who need each other to heal and become whole.
I've only read 120 pages and I loved every minute of it. I've arrived at the part where Asa kisses Eve and her reaction concerns me. So far, their has been sabotage, an almost nude painting session and an almost dog attack. Yes, I know that this book is VERY exciting. I can't wait to finish the rest.
This book seem so to answer a lot of the questions from the books I have read and I look forward to reading the rest.
HAPPY READING!
Excerpt
“What do you see when you look at me?”
What did she see when she looked at him?
Eve inhaled, trying and failing to tear her gaze from his.
Mr. Harte sprawled across her dainty settee like a Viking marauder in a pillaged Christian church. His broad shoulders took up more than half the width, his arms lazily draped over the back. His scarlet coat was spread open, contrasting with the sedate gray-
blue of the cushions almost shockingly. One long leg was thrust straight before him, the other cocked open and resting on a booted heel. The pose made the apex of his thighs very . . . obvious . . . and even as she kept her eyes locked on his she could feel heat rising in her cheeks.
What did she see?
She saw violence and anger, kept under a control that was tenuous at best. She saw power and a strength that could hurt her—kill her—if he so chose. She saw the innate brutality that was, in larger or smaller part, in all men.
She saw her most terrible fears.
But—and this was the truly unprecedented part—she saw more in him. She saw temptation—her temptation—alluring and frightening at the same time, his virility so strong it was nearly a visible miasma in the space between them.
She wanted him. Wanted that brash gaze, those long, muscled thighs, that mocking, insulting mouth, and the shoulders that went on forever, big and brawny and so
very, very male.
This was madness—she knew that intellectually. She’d never wanted a man before—was in fact afraid of almost all men, let alone one so obviously, blatantly sexual.
She took a breath, hoping that he couldn’t read all this from her gaze—and knowing it was a lost cause already.
His heavy-lidded green eyes were far, far too perceptive.
“I see . . .” She paused to lick suddenly dry lips. “I see that your hairline is nearly a perfect arc across the expanse of your forehead. That your eyebrows tilt ever so slightly up at the ends and that the right has a scar through it. I see that when you are solemn, the outer edges of your lips reach just to the midpoint of your eyes, but when you smile, they go beyond the corners. I see that your chin and jaw are almost in classical proportion and that a small white scar forms a comma on your chin just to the right of center.” She finally glanced away from him, breathing heavily, certain that she’d not thrown him off the track with her artist’s eye’s impressions. She inhaled again and ended, “I see every line of your face, every line’s intersection and how they relate. That is what I see when I look at you.”
“And is that all you see? Lines?” His voice was deep and amused.
She chanced a peek.
He still watched her, his gaze utterly unperturbed by her observations about his countenance.
No, she’d not fooled him at all.
She licked her lips again, buying time. “I see,” she said carefully, cautiously, “a very self-possessed man.”
“Self-possessed,” he drawled. “I’m not sure what that means, frankly. It sounds, just a bit, like a coward’s answer.”
Her gaze flew to his, outraged.
But before she could take him down a peg, he chuckled softly. “Tell me, Miss Dinwoody, would you like to know what I see when I look at you?”
She shouldn’t. She really, really shouldn’t.
“Yes,” she blurted, and then winced because she knew well enough what men
thought when they looked at her: ordinary, if they were charitable. Plain if they were not.
She braced herself for mockery, but when she glanced again at him, his gaze was hot and hard. Certainly not gentle. Certainly not kind. But he wasn’t dismissing her, either.
He looked at her as if they were equals. As if he really saw her, a woman to his man.
“I see,” he said, his deep voice musing, “a woman afraid, but fighting her fears. A woman who carries herself like a queen. A woman who could rule us all, I suspect.”
She gazed at him, her breath caught in her throat, afraid to exhale and break the spell.
A corner of that wicked mouth tilted up. “And I see a woman who has a deep curiosity. Who wants to feel but is worried—of herself? Of others?” He shook his head. “I’m not sure.” He leaned forward slowly, destroying his pose, and she had to fight herself not to scoot her chair away from him. “But I think she has a fire banked within her. Maybe it’s only embers now, glowing in the dark, but if tinder were to be put to those embers . . .” He grinned slowly. Dangerously. “Oh, what a conflagration that would be.”
About the author:
Elizabeth Hoyt is the New York Times bestselling author of over seventeen lush historical romances including the Maiden Lane series. Publishers Weekly has called her writing "mesmerizing."
She also pens deliciously fun contemporary romances under the name Julia Harper. Elizabeth lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota, with three untrained dogs, a garden in constant need of weeding, and the long-suffering Mr. Hoyt.
The winters in Minnesota have been known to be long and cold and Elizabeth is always thrilled to receive reader mail. You can write to her at: P.O. Box 19495, Minneapolis, MN 55419 or email her at: Elizabeth@ElizabethHoyt.com.
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