Scarsdale Publishing, $0.99, ISBN 979-8201494889
Historical Romance, 2017
There are two copyright dates in Summer Hanford’s Deceived by a Lord, 2022 and 2017. Also, the whole thing is copyrighted to the author, but there is also a publisher mentioned, one Scarsdale Publishing. I have no idea what is happening here, so I’ll just assume this one was first published in 2017 and reissued in 2022.
Matilda Philmont’s social life is inadvertently shaped by her mother and her older sister Prudence. I know, I know, romance heroines detest other women, what else is new, right? Still, Prudence is not only super hot and renders Tilly invisible for the most part—she’s also a mean and petty bully that Tilly ends up having no friends due to her older sister’s antics.
Fortunately, our heroine meets a charming, gallant gentleman that will take her away from these women.
Uncertainty filled his face, making him appear younger, less supercilious and somehow even more attractive. “I didn’t know.” He rubbed his jaw, where her handprint had faded. “You’re sure you’re not a title-grubbing seductress?”
Well, he’s hot, so whatever he says or does, he’s… hot. That’s all that matters, alright?
“I wasn’t lying. Seeing you out here smiling in the sun has been the highlight of every day I’ve been in London. I was heartbroken to learn you were just another shallow, title-grasping seductress. You always seem so purely happy here.”
See? He used to think that she was a greedy ho, but now he’s changed his mind, so that’s alright now!
“I suppose it’s poor form for me to admit as much, but I’m half in love with you, Tilly Philmont. You can’t imagine what women have been like since my uncle died and left me a dukedom. Even ones I’ve known for years. Their behavior has been… disillusioning, to say the least.”
He’s a duke and he thinks every woman is ho, except for Tilly. Ding, ding, ding, we have the perfect hero for a heroine that clearly can’t stand it when she’s not the only virtuous hot gal in the room.
This guy approaches her in the garden during a party with scintillating conversations such as I’ve shared earlier, and he then claims that, in spite of being surrounded by ghastly hos, he has never been kissed.
Our dumb gullible fool chivalrous heroine then kisses him, and then her mean sister engineers a plot to force Duke My Kisses Are Not For Hos to marry Tilly, and Tilly is mad because how dare that mean sister make her marry a wealthy duke!
Sometimes, I have to wonder whether authors of things such as this one ever reread what they have written and realize the extent of the gibberish buffoonery of their heroine. Looking at this one, probably not.
