Title: A Nobleman’s Guide to Seducing a Scoundrel
Series: The Doomsday Books: Book Two
Author: KJ Charles
Publisher: Sourcebooks Casablanca
Length: 333 Pages
Category: Historical Romance
Rating: 5 Stars
At a Glance: When KJ Charles escalates the threat to life and limb, this story tightens its grip and doesn’t relent for breathless moments in time. It is anxiety manifested by the written word, and I adored every moment of it all the way to Luke and Rufus’s happy ending.
Reviewed By: Lisa
Blurb: Major Rufus d’Aumesty has unexpectedly become the Earl of Oxney, master of a remote Norman manor on the edge of the infamous Romney Marsh. There he’s beset on all sides, his position contested both by his greedy uncle and by Luke Doomsday, son of a notorious smuggling clan.
The earl and the smuggler should be natural enemies, but cocksure, enragingly competent Luke is a trained secretary and expert schemer—exactly the sort of man Rufus needs by his side. Before long, Luke becomes an unexpected ally…and the lover Rufus had never hoped to find.
But Luke came to Stone Manor with an ulterior motive, one he’s desperate to keep hidden even from the lord he can’t resist. As the lies accumulate and family secrets threaten to destroy everything they hold dear, master and man find themselves forced to decide whose side they’re really on…and what they’re willing to do for love.
Review: When it comes to Historical Romance few authors render it as beautifully, or diversely, as KJ Charles. And, in my most humble opinion, none do it better. The Doomsday Books transport readers to a time and place with their own unique identity and politics, and they comprise characters who run the gamut of personalities—from thoroughly charming to utterly contemptible.
Luke Doomsday was introduced as a teen in The Secret Lives of Country Gentlemen. His backstory is one composed of heartbreak and hardship, trying to win his father’s acceptance and approval when all Luke ever got for his ongoing efforts was abuse and hatred. All while his extended family missed, or overlooked, what Luke fervently believes should have been obvious to them. That belief has shaped who Luke is now—an adult mired in unresolved trauma and anger, a Doomsday outsider by choice, and this controls his decisions as well as inspires his mistakes. Luke’s transgressions against his new employer, Rufus d’Aumesty, are slow to be revealed but become exceedingly complicated by his attraction to the man he fully and unapologetically intends to deceive.
Rufus may no longer be a soldier, but that doesn’t mean he’s done fighting battles. Being used as an unwitting tool in his grandfather’s machinations is why his uncle Conrad believes himself the rightful heir to the Oxney title, and his shrew of an aunt Matilda is determined to ensure her husband usurps Rufus’s position as the earl, by fair means or foul. Foul being the operative word. That Luke becomes embroiled in the family drama is as much by choice as by necessity, as he makes Rufus a useful tool while he works on Rufus’s behalf to ensure Conrad and Matilda fail.
Rufus is far from a dupe, though. The generosity he continues to extend to his family and the kindness he shows Luke come from a place of decency rather than gullibility. But every man has a breaking point, and Rufus discovers his when Luke becomes entangled in a web of his own weaving, elevating the romantic tension to its fullest. It’s when KJ Charles escalates the threat to life and limb, however, that the story tightens its grip and doesn’t relent for breathless moments in time. It is anxiety manifested by the written word, and I adored every moment of it all the way to Luke and Rufus’s happy ending.
You can buy A Nobleman’s Guide to Seducing a Scoundrel here: