It’s not often that I come across a hero to die for, but Rexanne Becnel certainly has created a doozy in the person of one Adrian Hawke, the dark and handsome by-blow of a prominent Scottish family. And, frankly, for me he made this book.

Heroine Hester Poitevant is a bit more challenging. The kindest assessment is to say that she is someone who would clearly benefit from some extensive therapy (the more than once-a-week kind). But, to be fair, she was also cursed with an exceptionally toxic and selfish mother who left her daughter determined to remain both a virgin and a spinster for the rest of her life – all of which makes her choice of a career interesting, to say the very least.

Hiding her beauty with frumpy clothes, that familiar spinster hairdo, and the false title of “widow,” Hester (called the Bridemaker by the ton) very successfully grooms young ladies for the Marriage Mart. One evening she accompanies Dulcie Bennett, her latest charge, to a society party and meets Adrian, the object of Dulcie’s childish infatuation.

In Adrian’s eyes, the haughty Hester personifies the excessive class consciousness and snobbery he abhors about society. His feelings about Hester are further complicated by the fact that Dulcie is the sister of a man who relentlessly bullied Adrian about his birth in school, and encouraging her infatuation might provide a neat way to revenge himself on both her brother and – in the person of Hester – society in general. When Hester coldly rejects (in Adrian’s eyes, at any rate) the tentative advances of the awkward but kindly Horace Vasterling, Adrian has even more reason to dislike the reserved Mrs. Poitevant.

But, of course, there is far more to Hester than Adrian suspects, and a connection he could not begin to guess at. When he tricks her into taking Horace on as her latest protégé, he doesn’t know he has unwittingly stumbled on Hester’s deepest secret. To say more would be to provide a plot spoiler. What I can reveal is that when Hester was a young girl her now deceased mother fled her boring marriage, taking only her jewels and her child. From that time on, she seemed to live as something of a high class courtesan, going from man to man and sparing little attention for her daughter. Not surprisingly, Hester is bitter.

But what Hester hasn’t done is question her mother’s version of her marriage and the reasons she chose to leave. So, rather than examine the motivations and story of a mother she doesn’t seem to have respected as a person, Hester has chosen to deny herself any chance to know her the remainder of her family. Her decision doesn’t appear very astute as it eventually flies in the face of the reality she encounters.

Frankly, I found some of the plot’s complications to be a bit cumbersome (this became even more clear to me when I tried to simplify them for this review), but the character of Adrian is so wonderful that I have to rate this book as an extremely satisfying read. Rexanne Becnel has written some terrific love scenes and, while seducing the repressed Hester is a definite challenge, Adrian is more than up to the task.

I should also make it clear that ultimately I did like Hester. In a time that was not kind to women, this resourceful young lady managed to overcome some tough breaks and find a way to make a safe and secure life for herself. Still, she does seem to be wearing a sign on her forehead saying “Major Psychiatric Help Needed” and sometimes I did lose patience with that.

But, then there is Adrian. Rexanne Becnel delivers it all with this one – her hero is smart, successful in business, funny, red hot sexy, a rogue without being a rake, and, at his very core, a kind and decent human being. The scene in which Adrian partially seduces Hester is especially terrific.

So, read this book for Adrian. I can just about guarantee that you’re going to like him.