SCANDALOUS BY NIGHT
Barbara Pierce
St. Martin's Paperback
August 2008
ISBN 0-312-94797-6
Historical Romance

Lord Everod has waited twelve years for his revenge against Maura Keighly. By seducing and thus ruining her, he will strike at his stepmother, Georgette, Maura's aunt. Twelve years ago, the fifteen year old Everod had been himself seduced by his father's twenty-four year old fourth wife, and Maura had come across them and had run to get his father...only for Georgette to convince Maura of a different scenario, that she had been attacked by Everod. Everod's father had struck at him with a sword, ripping open his throat and banished him ever more from his sight. Seducing the lovely Maura will be easy because as one of the _les sauvages nobles, he is well-practiced in how to seduce and please a woman. What he does not expect are the feelings and yearnings that Maura brings out in him...and the jealousy he feels when his younger brother sets out to make Maura his own.

SCANDALOUS BY NIGHT is a well-written, dark Regency historical that will have readers turning the pages long into the night. There is mystery, adventure, a very nasty villain, and lots of sensual romance in this tale of revenge that turns into love. Barbara Pierce writes dark, bad boy heroes and at the same time, makes them into heroes that we believe in. Everod pulls at the reader's heartstrings in that he desperately wants his father's love and acknowledgement. Her characters are richly complex and well drawn. Readers of the Carlisle series will meet up with many old friends from the previous three books, the les sauvages nobles themselves as well as their women. SCANDALOUS BY NIGHT is book four in the Carlisle Family series, and it is highly recommended!

Rating: 4 1/2
Reviewed by Debora Hosey