The Art of Temptation is the final book in a trilogy, and, unfortunately, it reads like it. Couple this with an historically inaccurate premise and plodding writing, and you have a mess that took me more than a week to get through.

Sean Delaney is an Irish self-made millionaire whose sister Dierdre has long been estranged from her reclusive, artist husband, John Hamilton. Sean and Dierdre have petitioned John for a divorce in vain, until John offers Sean a bargain: take his place and wait upon his (also estranged) dying uncle, the Earl of Lincolnshire for a few weeks while he hies off to Wales to paint and debauch. If Sean will do so, John will grant Dierdre her divorce. Otherwise, once John inherits, he will force Dierdre to return to his home and his bed to produce an heir.

Feeling that he has no choice, Sean reluctantly agrees but becomes almost weighed down by guilt once he gets to know and care for the old man. There is also Lord Lincolnshire’s neighbor, Corinna Chase, an artist herself, who is working on a portrait for submission to the annual Summer Exhibition put on by the Royal Academy of Arts. For some reason, Sean tells her the truth about his identity, which she doesn’t believe until she realizes that he’s color-blind. Together they work to make Lord Lincolnshire’s last days happy while Sean becomes more and more embroiled in lies and deception, and Corinna struggles over her art.

This book suffers from a problem many sequels have: too many characters. There are so many sisters and cousins and aunts (oh my!) that I couldn’t keep track of them all. It’s obvious that their stories were told in previous books, but they just clutter up the landscape in this one. There is also a secondary romance between Corinna’s brother Griffin and her cousin Rachel, which was also, obviously, begun in a previous book. In this one their storyline was so disconnected from the main one – and the scenes with Griffin and Rachel inserted into the narrative seemingly at random – that it was jarring every time they appeared. I didn’t care for either of them, but then, I didn’t care for Corinna and Sean either. I felt no spark between them, and their actions were so obtuse in relation to keeping Sean’s identity a secret – going to ton balls, talking about the situation within earshot of servants, and Corinna outing Sean to her entire very extended family – that I lost all patience with them.

I will credit Royal in that she thoroughly researched many aspects of the period, though sometimes in excruciating detail, as when I learned far more about each member of the Royal Academy’s selection committee than I ever wanted (or needed) to; her extensive quoting of Minerva Press novels is also impressive, if tedious. It is all the more glaring, then, that she completely ignores the marriage laws of the day. No one “gives” anyone a divorce in Regency England. It was a very rare, very long and very expensive process entailing three separate trials – civil, ecclesiastical and Parliamentary – and both the husband and wife were then social outcasts. Good grief – even the Prince Regent failed in his bid to divorce his hated wife. And since the entire premise of this story is based upon John Hamilton “giving” his wife a divorce if his brother-in-law does him a favor, I found myself grinding my teeth right from the outset of the novel.

The Art of Temptation was a complete failure for me on every level. I suppose that if you’ve been following this series, liked the previous books and need some closure you might want to pick it up, but if you haven’t, I advise you to stay far, far away.