Lady Be Bad is the story of a very, very bad boy and a very, very good girl that I found to be an entertaining read, albeit one with a few slight problems. This is the third installment of Hern’s Merry Widows series and is the story of the Widow Marlow and London’s most infamous rake, John Grayson, Viscount Rochdale.

Rochdale is nothing but a libertine. He likes his horses, his drink, his women, and his gambling. Lord Sheane has a proposal he can’t refuse – he bets a prize winning horse against Rochdale’s ability to seduce any woman that Lord Sheane can name. Lord Sheane picks none other than Grace Marlowe, the God-fearing widow of the Bishop of London. Rochdale has no doubt in his abilities to successfully seduce and he wants Sheane’s horse.

Grace Marlow is a good woman, a do-gooder, exactly the type Rochdale has always avoided. Since her husband died, she has worked to create Marlowe House, a home to help war widows and their families get back on their feet in his honor, while also editing her late husband’s sermons for publication. She knows Rochdale and has always cast a disapproving eye in his direction and cannot fathom why he has formed the habit of watching her at a variety of events.

As innocent as Grace is, she is a member of a group calling themselves the Merry Widows, friends who work for charity while also vowing to take a lover and share the details of their relationships. As a result of one of these friendships, she finds herself alone with Rochdale, who sees this as his chance to begin the seduction.

Grace, who was trained by the Bishop to subdue any feelings of passion, is unprepared to deal with Rochdale. She thinks her feelings are wrong since they go against everything she has been taught. Rochdale senses the battle raging within her and capitalizes on it, provoking her to take chances and pushing her to feel things that she has not allowed herself to feel in years. He also begins to realize that Grace truly is a good woman, not devious in any sense, unlike the women to whom he is accustomed. He begins to doubt himself and fears ruining her.

What I enjoyed about the book were the characters. I liked Grace because the author does a good job of portraying the inner turmoil she endures as she begins to explore her own curiosity about sex. Rochdale does not regret his actions as a libertine and does not make excuses for them or try to cover them up when he is with Grace. He maintains his objective throughout the course of the book.

My major complaint comes at the very end of the story, when a secondary – and I might add, extraneous – Big Misunderstanding occurs. To make matters worse, I did not like the reaction of the characters to it. If this secondary Big Mis had to be in the story at all, I think that the reaction should have been meatier in substance.

All in all, I enjoyed Hern’s Lady Be Bad and will probably go back and read the previous two books. Even though the story was somewhat predictable, I enjoyed the interaction of the characters. Every once in a while you need a Duke of Slut and a good girl story.