To Seduce an Earl
Grace Brisbane will do anything to help her dying mother and destitute family, even if it means going to the infamous Lavender Hills, a brothel catering to an exclusive female clientele, in an effort to prepare herself for marriage with the worldly Lord Roderick. Instead she falls for her tutor at Lavender Hills, the attractive and mysterious Alex. Alex Weston was blackmailed by the conniving Lady Lavender when he was a young boy and is kept at Lavender Hills as a virtual prisoner. When he meets Grace, though, he begins to feel a hope he didn’t know existed and dares to think of a future outside of the brothel.
This book grabbed me from the very first line and drew me in with a charming first chapter full of comical misunderstanding between the bored Alex, who just wants to cut to the chase with his newest “client,” and the bookish and naïve Grace. Brighton does an excellent job of painting Grace as an innocent without the cloyingness that often clings to such a character in historical romances. And Alex comes with family secrets that stretch back to the Crimean War. An enjoyable Victorian romance.
