Landon Sisters #2
By: Ingrid Hahn
Releasing February 20, 2017
Entangled Scandalous
Link to Follow Tour: Tasty Book Tours
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Blurb
One good blackmail deserves another.
After a lifetime of rakish behavior, Lord Maxfeld must pretend he’s reformed and find a fake wife. And, with the perfect blend of family scandal and tenuous acceptance in Society, there is nobody more suitable than Lady Phoebe. Trouble is, Phoebe will not agree to a false engagement, forcing Max to blackmail her into his scheme.
Phoebe will go to great lengths to avoid anything remotely dishonorable. Unwilling to bear the scandal of a broken engagement, she blackmails Max right back—directly to the altar.
Once married, though, Phoebe wants much more than Max’s ring. She wants his heart. But he will never give it. For better or worse may just be words but Phoebe cannot stay with Max if he thinks love is the worst thing that can happen.
A tasty, sensual treat with well-developed characters and flow as smooth as the hero himself!
Max is in a bit of a pickle, and his has been femininely neglected. He needs to convince his mother that he’s responsible enough to take custody of his five-year-old nephew (who’s now an orphan), but his two heads are warring with each other. He knows which one needs to win, but the underdog is pushing toward victory. In other words…
Due to the reasons behind his father’s demise, Max has vowed to never bed a woman, let alone take a wife. He doesn’t want to put a woman (or child) through what his father put his family through; so although he’s enjoyed the pleaure of a woman he’s never gone all the way. He can’t take the chance of impregnating anyone. However, this doesn’t prevent him from wanting, and when it comes to Phoebe, whom he’s admired from a distance, needing. Having his nephew not only allows him to give the child the life his sister would’ve wanted for him, but it also give him a chance to be a father. Something he doesn’t see for himself because of his fear. Also, his mother is grieving herself sick over his sister’s death. She needs time to heal, and the child needs space to grow and just be a kid.
Phoebe is well aware of Max’s reputation as a rake, but the full truth gradually comes to light as she spends more time with him pretending to be his fiance. In order to keep her secret just that – a secret, she has to go along with his dastardly plan. She expected to be betrothed for six weeks. What she hadn’t expected was to fall for her husband, nor for him to fall for her. They go together like hot buns and raspberry jam, and once they get a taste, they’re both hooked. What would happen if they went all in, or shall I say, Max went all in :)?
Well, you’ll just have to read the book to find out.
The witty repartee is just part of what makes this story so yummy. Hahn’s vivid description engages all five senses, and readers will anticipate the lovers’ first deep physical connection on a whole new level. I did wish I could’ve known more about their past intereactions together. It’s clear that they’ve met a couple of times before. I’m sure this is probably in the first book, To Win a Lady’s Heart, but unfortunately I have not yet read that one. Emphasis on the yet :).
Nonetheless, I connected to them. Phoebe is patient, but forceful at the same time. She doesn’t want to give up on Max, and she tries her best to get him to come around and open up to her. They each have a secret, but she’s not privy to his as he is hers, and that disadvantage weighs on her. Not because of the unfairness of it all, but because she cares for him and can see he’s hurting. Through it all, they did find time to enjoy each other, making this a well-balanced story. I enjoyed reading their story and I wish to revisit them in the future.
Rating system: Cups of Coffee (the less the better)
0: You won’t need any coffee to stay up for this one. It’s intriguing enough all on its own.
1: You’ll stay up late, but not all night. Brew one cup.
2: You’ll read as long as you’re not tired. If you are, two cups should do the trick.
3: I hope you got plenty of rest; you’ll need it, or at least 3 cups.
4: If the cable goes out, read the book. It’s better than nothing, I guess. Oh, don’t forget your brew!
5: Find anything else to do- it doesn’t matter what it is. Don’t waste your coffee. Too much caffeine is bad for you.
My rating: 1/2 cup of coffee
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She rocked against him—just once. Almost experimentally. Except with a certain awareness of exactly what it was her bottom was up against. “I stretched, and how wonderful it felt.”
“You’re teasing me, wench.”
“I’m not a wench, I’m your wife. Do you want me to go on, or not?”
His lips in a grim line, he gave a single nod.
“Very well.” She cleared her throat. “I wanted to explore myself, and I wanted to explore you. But you weren’t there.”
“So you had only one option.”
She pulled back and gave him a look that could have put the strictest governess to shame. Oh, what it did to him. “I’m telling this story, husband.”
“Then tell it. Please, tell it.”
Author Info
Ingrid Hahn is a failed administrative assistant with a B.A. in Art History. Her love of reading has turned her mortgage payment into a book storage fee, which makes her the friend who you never want to ask you for help moving. Though originally from Seattle, she now lives in the metropolitan DC area with her ship-nerd husband, small son, and four opinionated cats. When she’s not reading or writing, she loves knitting, theater, nature walks, travel, history, and is a hopelessly devoted fan of Jane Austen. She loves to connect with her readers
Connect with the Author: WEBSITE | FACEBOOK | TWITTER | GOODREADS
Q&A with Ingrid Hahn
Q: Name one thing you won’t leave home without.
Definitely my head. Thankfully, I’m not a screw top, so I can always remember it. Everything else is fair game.
Q: If you could trade places with anyone for just one day, who would you be?
I can’t decide between two choices. Either Cleopatra right after she met Mark Antony, but I won’t tell you why. Or some chick inside a perfume commercial. You get to be gorgeous, perfectly made up, and there is usually a not-too-hard-on-the-eyes guy around. (That goes for perfume lady—Cleopatra wasn’t the gorgeous siren she’s depicted as being in popular myth.) The perfume lady has the bonus of either getting to wear a big fancy dress or lazing around a private beach.
Q: What types of scenes are your most favorite to write?
The naughty ones.
Q: Is anything in your book based on real life experiences or purely all imagination?
I put a tiny, tiny bit of myself into each heroine in a superfluous way. My first heroine, Grace, loved chocolate and has less-than-perfect hair (far less, I’m afraid). My second, Phoebe, is a big reader and loves tea. My third, Eliza—her book is coming in June—hates cherries. However, unlike Eliza, I came by my dislike honestly. I just plain don’t like them. I won’t spoil it for you, but Eliza came by her dislike by way of an abhorrent association.
Q: Do you have any advice to give to aspiring writers?
Let go of your ego, never stop learning, work hard to nail good conflict, learn to encapsulate your entire story in one pithy statement that makes strangers’ eyes bulge and beg you to write the book immediately (I’m still working on this one!). Don’t self-publish too early. Give yourself permission to turn into a seething green jealousy monster even for writer friends you love dearly when they achieve something you covet, but cap your time in The Great and Terrible Land of Envy to about ten or twenty minutes, then go back to being happy for them and focusing your energy on your own work.
I don’t know what it is, but there is something so sexy about a wife calling her husband ‘husband’ in historical romance. Why is that? LOL
Now you have me craving a biscuit with raspberry jam. GAH! LOL
Nice interview and review. So glad to see you enjoyed this one. LOVE your ratings system!