Lady Be Bad - Candice Hern

John Grayston, seventh Viscount Rochdale, has never refused a wager, especially one that involves enticing a beautiful woman into his bed. He’s willing to stake his most prized possession that there’s not a single woman in all of England immune to his charms. But when the object of the wager is the prim and proper Grace Marlowe, he has to turn on the full force of his seductive charm to woo her.

Grace, the widow of a famous bishop, finds her stalwart virtue put to the test when the infamous rake shows an unexpected interest in her. Outraged, flattered, and reluctantly attracted, she soon finds herself falling under the spell of the man behind the scandalous reputation. Rochdale, in turn, is delighted to discover a fiery passion beneath the widow’s prudish façade. But when hearts and lives become tangled in the gamble, the truth of his seduction could ruin everything ...

First of all I must say that this trilogy should be read in a row. I didn’t do that and it has been a while since I had read the others and so I was a bit lost in the beginning. I was looking forward to have Rochdale pursuing Grace and I felt we had jumped right to the middle of the story and skipped that part. I needed more angst and emotional struggling while he did the pursuing and it never really happened.
I thought Grace was a bit too good and correct and righteous in the beginning but she soon starts feeling unnerved and attracted to Rochdale which gave her a more human dimension.
Rochdale is not in the beginning the most endearing person, although he is the rake with a mysterious past that might be appealing the reason why he decided to pursue Grace was to win a wager. As the story progresses however we find out a bit more about his past and his actions show that he is ready to be reformed. Not through Grace’s love but because deep down he was once a good man and his current behaviour is starting to torment and disgust him. I thought it was rather believable that his change comes from inside instead of his current amorous feelings.
He has a crisis of conscience on how to tell or avoid telling Grace about the wager when he realizes that in fact he has deep feelings for her but since this is a romance and some conflict is needed she finds out from a third party and breaks off with him. It was predictable that they would make up and the fact that Hern added another conflict just before the end really didn’t add much to the story imho. In the end it was a light and funny read good to spend an afternoon with but without the emotional depth to make it stand out.

Grade: C+

P.S. I love the cover...