Celia May Hart, Made for Sin

Made for Sin

Celia May Hart

Kensington, Feb 2007, $12.95

ISBN: 0758214650

In Lord Alex Radbourne's carriage, Lucy Waverton is enjoying being on top until he calls her Danielle; she jumps out of his moving coach. He looks for her, but Lucy hides in the bushes as she feels humiliated. Sergeant Michael Hall finds her and takes her to his camp where he assumes she is a high-priced courtesan because she has sex with him. The next morning she informs him that she lost a lot of money gambling and met this aristocrat to arrange payment; he was drunk, abducted and raped her. She is shocked when Michael insists they had sex as she swears she could not have.

Alex keeps looking for Lucy as he feels ashamed and he plans to marry her to make amends for his behavior. When he finally finds her, he grabs her, only to learn he accosted Lucy's older sister Caroline, who he informs he is honor bound to wed her sibling. Caroline and Alex agree to search for Lucy together. He explains that he wanted to teach Lucy a lesson about gambling over one's head and got drunk, which led to a series of errors by him. However, making love with Caroline feels right though he knows he must wed Lucy who is falling in love with her soldier.

This is a terrific Regency romance that effortlessly merges erotica into its two subplots; starring a sister in each with the hunk they love. The siblings and their men are fully developed while the support cast, mostly two spouses of soldiers, enhances the tale by better understanding the life of a fighting man. Though profanity seems overused in the sex scenes and underused when the lead players are in danger, sub-genre readers will appreciate this hot historical.

Harriet Klausner