Ever since I read What a Scoundrel Wants, I’ve been wanting to see what happened to the heroine’s horrid sister, Ada. In Scoundrel’s Kiss, Ada, our villain, shows a more nuanced side and gets a story of her own that features a fantastic web of plot and some of the morally intriguing characters I’m starting to expect from this author.

From the very beginning of this book, readers can tell that Ada really does have problems. And they are problems primarily of her own making, thanks to what seems like her inability to make a single really good choice in her life. Readers of the previous book already know she betrayed her sister. Now she has fled England and taken her brilliant talent for languages on the road to Spain, where she’s found a noble patroness (okay, make that one smart move for Ada), gotten addicted to opium, and now must sell herself into slavery to pay her debts.

As the story moves along, readers will soon figure out that Ada is not a misunderstood innocent, but rather the self-centered, screwed up person they initially thought she was. However, when Gavriel de Marqueda comes into her life, we start to see that she has goodness mixed in, too. A novice preparing to take vows, Gavriel has been directed by his master to purchase Ada and to turn her over to the Church, to make her repent her evil ways.

One may fairly say that Gavriel does not relish his challenge, but he sticks with it even when he figures out that Ada is an addict. After all, Gavriel has his own sins and secrets for which he is trying to atone and keeping his vows and working with Ada help him do this. However, somewhere along the way Gavriel finds himself caring for Ada as a person rather than as a duty. Ada is not an easy person to care about, as she fights all of Gavriel’s attempts to help her. Still, one would never call Gavriel a paragon either. He protects Ada from danger, but his own guilt eats at him and makes it difficult for him to form a close bond with anyone.

At its best, this book has some fantastic things going for it. First of all, the Medieval Spanish setting truly stands out. Lofty works the blended Moorish and Spanish cultures into her story, and captures the uneasy mix of peoples in an area of Spain that changed hands between the Moors and the Spaniards several times during this historical period. It’s no secret that I’m sick to death of reading books set in the same old times and places, and I love not only the fact that this author tried something different, but that she did it well.

I also truly adored her characters. Ada and Gavriel aren’t exactly the usual paragons we find in historical romance. The not-so-merry band of misfits who appear as secondary characters are no less intriguing, and most are multifaceted and enjoyable in their own right.

As you can probably tell from the plot summary, Ada and Gavriel don’t exactly have instant chemistry. Sure, Gavriel notices that Ada is gorgeous. However, it doesn’t take him much longer to notice that she has major problems. Their relationship is a tempestuous one at first as Ada tests Gavriel’s limits and resists his attempts to wean her off of opium, telling him at one point, “I never asked to be your mission.” Gavriel’s astute response summed up Ada’s history quite well as he states, “No, you simply wallowed in a pit without the sense to grab a rope.” This marks quite a turning point. Gavriel eventually starts to bring out the best in Ada and, while she never stops being herself, she starts being a better version of herself than she was before. I found this refreshing and much more realistic than a total personality transplant would have been.

The only real issue I had with this book came in the middle when things seemed to slow down. Readers get some critical character development and the story is still primarily enjoyable, but some aspects of the plot ramble on a bit. The reason for some of the plot trails becomes apparent at the end of the novel, but that middle portion doesn’t hold one’s attention quite as well as I would have wished. However, if you enjoy Medieval romance or you simply want to visit characters and places that fall outside the realm of the tried and true, Scoundrel’s Kiss is a solid, good bet.