Lavinia Kent, A Talent for Sin

A Talent for Sin

Lavinia Kent

Avon, Jun 2009, $6.99

ISBN: 9780061734083

In 1818 the widow Lady Violet Carrington loves her life with no husband. She is a liberated woman due to her status and her wealth. Although she receives proposals, she rejects all of them because she logically thinks why she would never willingly become a second class citizen again. Besides which she has a younger hunk as her willing lover and she assumes he would never want to wed a woman seven years his senior.

Her male is rich Lord Peter St. John who believes in marriage to one's beloved; in his case Violet, who he knows is recalcitrant about remarrying. Still she owns his heart and he prays he has hers too. Though he knows the risk he proposes; she refuses insisting he needs a virgin sometime in his future. Peter challenges his beloved to be his equal partner placing Violet in emotional peril as she begins to see how much he wants her and how far he is willing to go. Will she take a chance on a second marriage with love as the equalizer or will she choose her current single freedom?

This is a superb Regency romance starring two likeable lead protagonists who both think they know what they want. Violet is especially wonderful as she takes advantage of society' unwritten rules for widows while her lover Peter demands more of her and their relationship. Ironically his being younger than her make a marital match unacceptable by the Ton, but being lovers is fine by the aristocracy. Fans will enjoy this strong poignant historical as Violet must choose between to be or not to be married for that is the question.