Bedding the Heiress by Cathy Maxwell

Enjoyable addition to the series

4 stars

When a loathsome rake steals heiress Francesca Dunroy's most treasured possession she is determined to get it back. In return for the heirloom, she decides to offer the rake a kiss. But on the darkened terrace in the middle of a ball she makes a dreadful mistake - she seduces the wrong man!

Justin Maddox is London's newly titled duke and he's not enjoying himself at all with his new position. Although that all changes when the fiery Francesca kisses him with a passion that surprises them both.

With neither able to forget, or even stay away from each other - love soon starts to blossom. But what will happen when Justin's enemies decide that it's time for revenge?

This is the third book in an ongoing series (after The Price of Indiscretion and In the Bed of a Duke) which focuses loosely around the Cameron sisters. This book follows where the last left off and tells the story of Justin Maddox as he tries to come to terms with the fact that he is now an English duke and not the Scottish rebel he always thought he was. As it is part of a series, I really don't think that this book stands alone as there is too much back story that you need to know to understand this book.

Both Justin and Francesca are enjoyable, interesting characters and I liked the interplay between them and their honest interactions with each other. It was also nice to see some characters from previous books pop up in this one.

I guess my main issues were that this almost felt like a filler book. Francesca and Justin's story was central although there was so much anticipation of the next book and the underlying action/plot line that runs through all the books, that the romance almost took a back seat. And compared to previous books by Cathy Maxwell, this book lacked a lot of emotional oomph. And I found myself increasingly frustrated with various Americanisms that crept into the text and inaccuracies such as spelling Scotch whisky with an 'e'. This didn't affect my rating of the book but it was annoying none the less.

Having said all that - this book was still miles better than many others in the same genre. It was upbeat, interesting, a definite page-turner and if nothing else it has made me really look forward to the next book in the series. If you're a fan of Cathy Maxwell and are keeping up with this series then this is a book I would recommend.