Bedding the Heiress
Grade : D-

Bedding the Heiress is a cliché-ridden mess. Here is the synopsis:

  • Feisty heroine
  • Angry hero
  • Chick-in-pants housebreaker
  • Whore!
  • Was that a maidenhead?
  • Special license

That tells you everything you need to know, doesn't it? You can all connect those dots, I'm sure. What, I have to write more? Okay, fine, if you insist…

The book opens with Phillip Maddox, the Duke of Colster, signing the papers that will turn over the dukedom to his long-lost, stolen-as-an-infant, and raised-in-Scotland-as-a-blacksmith twin brother Justin. While Phillip is at peace with his decision, Justin is in turmoil. Raised in the Highlands, he's an Englishman who thinks like a Scot, with a new and powerful seat in Lords that makes many nervous as to where his loyalties lie. They're right to be nervous, for he has in his possession the Sword of the MacKenna, which has the power to lead a rebellion. (Phillip's story was told in Maxwell's previous book, In the Bed of a Duke).

Francesca Dunroy's father married a girl younger than herself less than a month after Francesca's mother died. The ensuing scandal made Francesca's subsequent debut difficult and, in her anger, she made some poor decisions, primarily getting involved with a scoundrel who, when she wouldn't elope with him, tried to rape her and is now blackmailing her.

I think that the basic characters Maxwell has created could have made for an interesting romance. However, they do such stupid things that there were several times I would have stopped reading the book if I weren't obliged to finish it. Francesca and Justin lip-lock on a dark balcony before they've said a word, or even seen each other's faces. They make assumptions about the other - she must be a whore, just like his first wife, in a two-for-one cliché moment. She runs around in breeches in the middle of the night - more than once. They have sex the same night they meet. It's just one eye-rolling moment after another.

Things did improve somewhat the closer they got to the wedding, but then came the coup de grâce when the epilogue became, in essence, the first chapter of the next book, leaving unresolved all that Sword of the MacKenna stuff. Enough.

I thoroughly disliked Bedding the Heiress and resented the time lost reading it. But hopefully, by doing so, I will have saved your time.

Reviewed by Cheryl Sneed
Grade : D-

Sensuality: Warm

Review Date : April 3, 2007

Publication Date: 2007

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Cheryl Sneed

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