Review: How the Scoundrel Seduces – Sabrina Jeffries

The third deliciously sexy novel in the New York Times bestselling Duke’s Men historical romance series, featuring an investigator who sets out to find gypsies—and unexpectedly finds love.

Investigator Tristan Bonnaud has one aim in life—to make sure that his half-brother George can’t ever ruin his life again. So when the pesky Lady Zoe Keane, the daughter of the Earl of Olivier, shows up demanding that the Duke’s Men find a mysterious gypsy woman, he seizes the opportunity to also hunt for a gypsy friend who knows secrets about George. Tristan doesn’t expect to uncover Lady Zoe’s family secrets, as well…or end up falling for the woman who will risk all to discover the truth.

*I received a free ARC of How the Scoundrel Seduces from Gallery, Threshold, Pocket Books via Netgalley in exchange of an honest review*

How the Scoundrel Seduces might just be my favorite Dukes Men story yet! Tristan is as wonderfully rakish and devilishly honest as I remember, and Zoe is one of the most pesky heroines I have ever encountered.

My How the Scoundrel Seduces review:

Sabrina Jeffries certainly continues to enchant me, because How the Scoundrel Seduces enchanted me, both the storyline, the plot and the characters drew me in from the first sentence, and I stayed glued to my kindle for all these pages, always wanting to know what would happen next. As usual, the language is really well done, the sentence structure gives an older feel to the story, so that, added to the setting and the way most of the characters act brought me into a historical context in a perfect way.

I loved Tristan both in What the Duke Desires and in When the Rogue Returns, and I was absolutely delighted to read his story in How the Scoundrel Seduces. His character development is very well done, but nothing ever takes away from his seducing and teasing way. Zoe is possibly the only woman, no the only person, who can actually make Tristan speechless, which is one of the reasons why I enjoyed her as much as I did. She also showed up in the second book, and she showed how pesky she was back then. In How a Scoundrel Seduces, she shows up at The Duke’s Men’s offices to make sure they do the favor they answered her, and they would have never imagined just how big a favor she needed.

Both Lisette and Max play a role in this intricate story, and it was a pleasure to them again as well. I think The Duke’s Men is among my favorite historical romance series – both because the writing is so good, and because the characters are so deliciously fleshed out I feel like I know them really well. The overall story-arc from the beginning of the series came full circle for some of the characters as well, and it was very satisfying to see that there was a plan for all of them.

Of course, there are some very well done steamy scenes, and I am always amazed when the heroine in a historical is as into that part as the hero is. Zoe certainly was able to let go of her inhibitions, but then, who could really blame her for not being able to resist Tristan?

Some of my favorite How the Scoundrel Seduces quotes:

 Not that any woman would care about his clothes, when his broad shoulders and his muscular thighs filled them out so well. Heaven save her.

She blinked. “Dallying? Dallying, mind you?” She marched up the last few steps. “As if I would ever in a million years dally with you.” She wouldn’t. Really, she wouldn’t. His low chuckle behind her put the lie to her words. 

Tristan had never watched her eat before, and she did it with such lusty enjoyment that he couldn’t tear his gaze from the surprisingly erotic sight. God only knew what else she would do lustily.

About Linda @ (un)Conventional Bookworms

Linda is an English as foreign language teacher and has a Master's degree in English Language and Literature. She's an avid reader, blogger, compulsive one-clicker and a genre omnivore. Ever since she learnt how to read she has been seen with a book or two in her hands everywhere she goes.

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