cover image The Sins of Viscount Sutherland

The Sins of Viscount Sutherland

Samantha James. Avon, $7.99 mass market (384p) ISBN 978-0-06-176554-4

James (His Wicked Ways) phones in her repetitive latest Regency. Viscount Grayson Sutherland, grieving for his dead wife and child, unintentionally kills a hotheaded young man in a duel. The duelist's sister, virginal Claire Ashcroft, comes to London seeking revenge. Posing as a widow, Claire decides to use the only power a woman has: to make this notorious rake fall in love with her and then publicly spurn him. Predictably, he instead seduces her and gets her pregnant, leading to an uncomfortable marriage of inconvenience. The pair are clearly in love, but they deny their feelings, squabble, break up, make up, find new reasons to argue, and repeat the cycle multiple times until resigning themselves to a happy ending. The hot sex and wrenching emotions will satisfy some readers, but others will run out of patience. (June)