Meet the Bedwyns—six brothers and sisters—men and women of passion and privilege, daring and sensuality....Enter their dazzling world of high society and breathtaking seduction...where each will seek love, fight temptation, and court scandal...and where Alleyne Bedwyn, the passionate middle son, is cut off from his past—only to find his future with a sinfully beautiful woman he will risk everything to love.

As the fires of war raged around him, Lord Alleyne Bedwyn was thrown from his horse and left for dead—only to awaken in the bedchamber of a ladies' brothel. Suddenly the dark, handsome diplomat has no memory of who he is or how he got there—yet of one thing he is certain: The angel who nurses him back to health is the woman he vows to make his own. But like him, Rachel York is not who she seems. A lovely young woman caught up in a desperate circumstance, she must devise a scheme to regain her stolen fortune. The dashing soldier she rescued from near-death could be her savior in disguise. There is just one condition: she must pose as his wife—a masquerade that will embroil them in a sinful scandal, where a man and a woman court impropriety with each daring step...with every taboo kiss that can turn passionate strangers into the truest of lovers.

Customer Rating:
Summary: Great, great read - Rachel and Alleyne are wonderful, and the secondary characters extremely colorful
Comment: SUMMARY (Bedwyn Family, Book 5):
Slightly Sinful overlaps significantly (chronologically speaking) with the previous book in the Bedwyn series, Slightly Tempted (Morgan and Gervase's story). Lord Alleyne Bedwyn (26), working as a British diplomat in Brussels, is sent to deliver a letter to the Duke of Wellington during the Battle of Waterloo. He receives a reply letter to deliver and heads back to Brussels, though he is in pain from being shot in the leg. When his horse throws him from the saddle, he hits his head and is knocked unconscious.

When we meet Miss Rachel York (22), she is practically all alone in the world, with an estranged uncle as her only remaining relative. She has recently split with her betrothed, who was a relatively new acquaintance made while she was a companion to an elderly woman in Brussels. After entrusting her pretty meager funds to him and convincing four other women to do the same, she overhears him and his sister talking and realizes that they are not the charitable Christians they appear to be (he's posing as a reverend) but are in fact con artists. They had been departing Belgium and heading for England, but she makes a quick getaway and returns to Brussels and the four women, whom she feels honor-bound to tell the truth to and in some way recompense.

The four women (fantastic characters! - they had me laughing throughout the book) are Flossie Streat, Geraldine Ness, Phyllis Leavey, and Bridget Clover, the latter of whom was Rachel's nurse for six years in her youth. They are prostitutes and have been running a brothel for the past four years, saving up money so that they can return to England and retire.

I tend to be long-winded in these descriptions, so I'll try to cut it down to the basics (and fail horribly): Rachel comes across Alleyne and the women take him in, nursing him back to health. Due to his fall, he has amnesia and unfortunately remembers nothing, including his own name; he is given a new one in the meantime - "Jonathan Smith." They also pick up Sergeant William Strickland (another wonderful secondary character), a soldier who lost one of his eyes at the Battle of Waterloo. They all head to England after deciding to visit Rachel's uncle, Baron Weston, in order to deceive him into thinking that Rachel and "Jonathan" are betrothed so that she can secure the jewels her mother left her. They will then be able to track down the evil con artists and get back their money. Of course, things don't go exactly as planned - nothing in life is ever that simple - but everything ends well and there are happy/deserved endings all around (who would expect otherwise?!).

REACTION:
I greatly enjoyed this book and thought it was a real treat, especially after having been somewhat disappointed by Slightly Tempted. I've looked through some of the other reviews and have seen many of the same complaints. The first is that people are tired of Balogh's repeated use of the same plot devices: fake/will-be-broken-off betrothals; in this case she goes past a fake engagement to a fake marriage (my question is, has anyone else also noticed how there is *always* a lake with a small island that the main characters row to and make love on?!?). The second complaint is that this book's plot leaned to the implausible.

My response to the first would be that I agree, but that Balogh is such a good writer that when she is able to succeed in all other ways (good writing, great chemistry, wonderful characters) I frankly don't care, but that's personal preference. To the second, I really have to protest - do we actually read these books because they are based on reality and believability? No, we read it for the romance and the chemistry, for the wonderful if-only-they-were-real-and-waiting-outside-my-door heroes and the great, strong heroines whom we can (let's face it) either imagine to be us in another life and alternate universe or a dear, dear friend, so we can share in the happiness.

CHARACTERS (main and secondary):
The book is brimming with wonderful characters. It's nice for a change to read about a Bedwyn who doesn't carry himself with haughtiness and arrogance, but instead has an easy grin and is good-humored (even before he falls in love!). Alleyne definitely changes from how we've seen him in past stories (somewhat shallow and aimless) to how he is by the end of the book (responsible, with a sense of purpose), and I think the development rings true and is well-done. I thought Rachel was a great heroine (and what a great change to have the heroine save the hero - literally). She's a strong young woman who has had a painful childhood and youth, but is hard-working and tries to be positive. I especially liked that she was friends with the wonderful female-quartet and was slightly protective of them, refusing to look down on them because of their profession (though I don't think Balogh should have had her call them "whores" in her thoughts as often as she does at the beginning).

Not only are the hero and heroine wonderful, but all of the secondary characters are well-written and add much laughter and tenderness to the story. The reunion that Alleyne has with his family is very emotional if you've read the other Bedwyn books, though I'll concede it occurs later in the book than I had expected. I also agree with the other reviewer who said that Balogh was brave in having the first romantic encounter not be wonderfully successful so that we can see the characters work through it; adds a certain reality to the story which is otherwise blissfully far too perfect to be real. I loved this book and think it is definitely one of the best ones of the series (ranks up there with Slightly Married and Slightly Dangerous, IMO).

BOTTOM LINE:
Read it and enjoy!!! (And then settle in for the wonderful, amazing, one-of-the-best-Balogh-books and the final in this great family series: Slightly Dangerous. Finally Wulfric gets what's been coming to him: a woman who will make him laugh and smile - hard to believe, I know ...).

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Slightly implausible?
Comment: If you've read Slightly Tempted, Morgan's story, this is the book you'll have been waiting for. Lord Alleyne Bedwyn, slightly bored, not sure what he wants to do with his life, joins the diplomatic corps. In Brussels on official business just before the Battle of Waterloo, he's dissatisfied with his position and his life; he isn't convinced by the war effort and he's wary of getting too close to it. Yet he doesn't have a choice. On the day of Waterloo, he is commissioned with taking a letter to the Duke of Wellington, which will require riding right into the thick of battle, finding the Duke and waiting for him to write a response before he can get away again. As we already know from Slightly Tempted, Alleyne does not return from this mission.

Rachel York is also affected by the war, but in a different way. In Brussels as a companion, she is beguiled by a clergyman who offers to marry her. On the way back to England, she discovers that he is actually a conman who has stolen a lot of money from English residents of the city by promising to take it back to England and invest it. He only pretended to be interested in Rachel because of the family jewels she will inherit when she marries. She returns to Brussels to inform other victims of their misfortune, and is taken in by three of them, prostitutes. In order to try to make some money back, they decide out of desperation to rob corpses (don't worry, they can't actually go through with it) and as a result Rachel stumbles on a naked, barely-alive man. Pretending that he is her husband, she takes him back to the brothel, with the aid of Sergeant Strickland, who has lost one eye and is discharged from the army as a result.

From here on, the story is somewhat predictable: Alleyne doesn't remember who he is and is amnesiac for most of the book. He believes that Rachel is a prostitute, but once he knows the truth the entire group - the prostitutes, Sergeant Strickland, Rachel and Alleyne - decide to go to Rachel's uncle's home with Alleyne masquerading as Rachel's husband, so that she can claim her inheritance.

As others have commented, the fake betrothal/marriage plot is by now very tired in this series. This book, too, while it's still very readable, did not grip me as much as others. The implausible nature of the plot - prostitutes masquerading as members of high society - and plan to deceive Rachel's uncle didn't sit well with me. I felt that perhaps, unlike earlier books in the series, this was intended to be more of a farce, but I'd have preferred something in a similar style to the others.

I was also disappointed that Alleyne's family reunion was so long delayed, too, given the grief we saw in Slightly Sinful. I will say that one thing I do commend Balogh for, however, is Alleyne and Rachel's first sexual encounter. It's a brave author who makes her characters' first sex scene a disaster, and then doesn't revisit lovemaking for at least 150 pages, but it worked. Real life is like that. Rachel was a virgin and Alleyne thought she was a whore; why would it be perfect?

Overall, this book is a must-read to complete the Bedwyn series, but not really worth it on its own.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Slightly Good
Comment: A good story line with entertaining characters. Just a bit thin on the relationship between Alleyne and Rachel. And, without spoiling the plot, let me just say that their sexual relationship was rather cold.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Balogh's not big on originality within the series...
Comment: Two words: Fake Marriage.

*smacks head* It's not quite a fake betrothal, but it's not all that different. So when I came to the part in this book where Alleyne and Rachel decide to pose as being married, I wanted to smack myself in the head. That makes, what, four or five books so far in this series where there is a a fake relationship? That's pushing it just way too far in my opinion, and it's hopelessly unoriginal. At times there's something to be said for some congruency when writing a series. It binds them together and offers that sort of parallel fate that can be interesting. But this isn't one of those times. When most of the books in a series share an almost exact plot hook, it gets real old real fast.

Aside from that, the thing I liked most in this book was the variety of characters. Most of the others have featured a very homogeneous set of societies best...even with several heroines not being quite up to snuff, they were still proper ladies. So I liked that in this book, four of the supporting cast were "painted ladies". They were boisterous, off-beat, and likable, and just a nice diversion from all the prim propriety of the beau monde. Plus there was Sergeant Strickland to add some more variety. And I like Rachel and Alleyne's romance. They were a sweet couple. The "plot" also worked for me for the most part, aside from the fake marriage bit.

I think if the fake marriage hadn't been part of the story, I would have enjoyed it quite a bit. I still did, but that aspect just annoyed me to death because of it's repetitiveness.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Love the Book
Comment: The book was wonderful, the continuity of the story held. I had read the others in the series and enjoyed the fact that there were no glaring mistakes. The story showed more of what it is like to be in a war, and a foreign country, and an amusing look at what it might have been like for women who were stronger than normally accepted.

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