Sweetest Scoundrel
Mainden Lane #9
Elizabeth Hoyt
Historical Romance
Published in 2015
H/h - Asa Makepeace/Eve Dinwoody
Setting: London, 1741.
Read in December, 2015.
[spoiler alert]
Now
here is the thing. Apart from Karen Marie Moning’s Highlanders series, I
don’t remember reading and reviewing a series that crossed its 8th book
mark. Elizabeth Hoyt’s epic series, Maiden Lane, has done that with
more installments on the way (YAY Me!). Sweetest Scoundrel was
as long time coming! The ones who have read the books as they published
since 2011 would know what I mean. We wanted Asa’s book in... like what?
Forever? Finally, it was time for his story to be told, and to find
some answers of those questions surrounding his mysterious appearance
and disappearances throughout.
For
us, the Maiden Lane addicts, Asa has been the stuff of... er, mystery,
if not legend. He’s the only Makepeace sibling whose story was left to
be told. Sweetest Scoundrel not only answered my questions but also, for
the first time, we were introduced to Verity and Concord, the two
eldest Makepeace siblings who were always there by mention but never by
presence. All I can say is do not read this series out of order!
Of
course, I have no idea how to do my usual recap with so many
installments passed, but I’ll try nonetheless. Maiden Lane originally
was based in St. Giles and revolved around a shadowy character with
Harlequin costume and a mask to protect his identity; who went by the
name of The Ghost of St. Giles. He was a legend among the locals; some
thought him a friend, while others thought him the bad guy. But no one
really knew who he was and what the hell he was doing, running in the
dark alleyways of St. Giles every night, evading the law enforcement
send out to catch him. The series also originally started with 3
Makepeace siblings—Temperance, Asa, Silence and Winter, with Concord and
Verity already married and moving on with their familes. The siblings
used to run an orphanage badly in need of financial help, passed down to
them by their deceased sire. That was about to change soon, one night,
in book 1 Wicked Intentions, when Temperance met Lazarus, Lord
Caire, who was on the trail of The Ghost, wanting revenge for a
wrongdoing. As they both found each-other, Lazarus’ mother, the dowager,
helped them finding patronage for the Orphanage from the peers who
wished to help. That’s how we come to know about Lady Hero, the sister
of the Duke of Wakefield, Maximus. Hero gets her HEA in book 2, Notorious Pleasures with Lord Griffin Reading. Lady Phoebe was introduced as Hero and Maximus’ youngest, gradually going blind, sister.