REVIEW: The Scoundrel's Lover (The Notorious Flynns #2) by Jess Michaels

Annabelle Flynn's family has never has the best of reputations and she yearns for respectability outwardly, but inwardly she craves to explore her sensuality. Annabelle has decided in order to gain that respectability, she needs a husband with a title, but a title will not necessarily mix with those budding desires that come to light when she meets the gaze of her older brother's friend, Marcus Rivers.

The handsome rogue, Marcus Rivers could give a fig about what society says about him. As part owner of the reputed gaming hell and realm of other pleasures, the Donneville Masquerage, Marcus earns a very good living from the vices of others. Insisting he does not want a permanent relationship with anyone, Marcus has had his eyes on Annabelle Flynn for years, but the very fact that she is an innocent and the sister of his boyhood friends makes him resist the temptation to act.

When Annabelle appears at the Masquerade in order to help her wayward brother, she see what she has been missing and her urges outweigh her want for that respectability. Against their better judgement, both Marcus and Annabelle enter into a arrangement of sorts that has Marcus schooling Annabelle is the art of passion. Once they both have had a taste of one another, keeping it impersonal beomes impossible and feelings erupt that will make or break each of them.

Annabelle's need for a proper existence may lead to a rather cold and lonely one once she has experienced the steamy side of desire and her inner struggle to come to terms with her decisions, make The Scoundrel's Lover by Jess Michaels one sizzling read. 

Author Jess Michaels has a way with words that embroil the reader into her world. Her characters are so perfectly contrived that one feels as if they know them intimately. Marcus Rivers is my ultimate in alpha heroes. His reputation preceeds him, but his inner feelings show the true man. Annabelle's need for the respect her family so easily wasted in the past clouds her true self and leads her down the wrong road to happiness. Respectability does not equal happiness and her her awakening to that realization is paramount in this tale.

This erotic historical romance is a must read. Jess Michaels doesn't push the envelope, she embraces it with the Notorious Flynns series and I thirst for the next story.

~KIMBERLY~