The love they share is, as the adorable innkeeper’s wife keeps saying, so plain to see, whether they see it yet or not. While they are eventually extricated from the inn, this sequence leaves the reader convinced of Pru and Bennet’s ultimate suitability for one another.

For the first third of the novel, we are trapped with Prudence and Bennet at the inn, due to all manner of misfortune, from rain to violent trees. Indecent takes the “forced proximity” trope to an interesting extreme. Indeed, Prudence says everything I as a reader was hoping she would and does everything short of physical harm (the only tiny disappointment in a great first chapter I was hoping she would kick him where it hurts, because he certainly seems to deserve it, at least initially).ĭarcy Burke’s magic, of course, is that within the span of a few dozen pages both Pru and the reader will have forgiven the truly repentant Bennet, penniless Viscount of Glastonbury, who really does seem to have committed kidnapping out of sheer desperation rather than a rakish or evil streak. For he won't break the promise he made to his family, even if it means losing the greatest love he's ever known.Indecent opens with a satisfying scene in which our kidnapped heroine, Prudence, displays she has a very fine backbone as she verbally defenestrates her kidnapper, who has accidentally plundered the wrong woman. Soon, she's dreaming of the future instead of wallowing in the past.īut when Bennet shares a dark secret, her hopes are dashed. But a villainous viscount interrupts her plans, and his surprising charm and understanding tempts her in the most indecent ways. Lady's companion Prudence Lancaster is single-minded about finding her mother and filling in the missing pieces of her life. Desperate, he hatches a scheme to snare an heiress only to be foiled by a most vexing and alluring-and unfortunately equally destitute-paid companion. James, the Viscount Glastonbury, doesn't find a bride with a sizeable dowry, he'll be in the poorhouse along with his interminable number of female relatives-all of whom he loves but are a drain on the negative fortune his father left when he died of a broken pocketbook. Welcome to the Phoenix Club, where London's most audacious, disreputable, and intriguing ladies and gentlemen find scandal, redemption, and second chances.

Indecent by Darcy Burke