Days of Rakes and Roses by Anna Campbell

4 romantic, sexy, lovely stars!

With her amazing story, Claiming the Courtesan, Anna Campbell instantly became one of my favorite historical romance authors! The way she tells a tale, I become part of the story; living the life, the hopes, the dreams, the passion, and getting caught up in a world I never want to leave. And she’s doing it again with her Sons of Sin series.

The Story -

Days of Rakes and Roses is book 1.5 in the series, and a truly lovely second-chance-romance, the second chance coming 10 years after Lady Lydia Rothermere’s father catches she and Simon Metcalf in a nigh unto compromising position. Lydia’s moment of indiscretion cost her dearly in her father’s cruelty towards his daughter, the slut, and Simon disappearing from her life. Now, just weeks before her marriage to an ambitious politician several years her senior, who should make his way back into her life but the man she never stopped loving, Simon.

Simon never forgot the stolen kisses shared with Lydia, and the passion that burned between them. In some ways it was a blessing that her father came upon them when he did – before he’d ruined her – because as a second son, Simon couldn’t give Lydia the kind of life she deserved. But after all these years, receiving a letter from Lydia’s brother, Cameron, the Duke of Sedgemoor, telling him that she’s about to marry and urging him to come home and stake his claim, Simon’s back, intending to do just that.

My Review -

Any novel you pick up by Anna Campbell is sure to be wonderful, so I expected nothing less than that with this one. But what makes Days of Rakes and Roses truly brilliant is the way Ms. Campbell has taken characters we’ve not been introduced to before and given them a story that doesn’t feel or read like a novella. Despite the shorter page count, Lydia and Simon are fully developed people I can’t help but care about, whose story I couldn’t put down, and whose happily ever after I was cheering for.

It’s stories like this that make Anna Campbell’s books irresistible!

My thanks to Forever Yours and Netgalley for providing me with a copy of this story in exchange for an honest review.