The plan they devise doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, if you look at it closely. The opera he’s writing is going poorly, and he knows that Helene is a musical genius. But Rees manages to overcome her objections by doing something unexpected: he begs for her help. The conditions he imposes are absolutely outrageous, and Helene nearly throws them back in his face. He informs her that he, and only he, will be the father of his heir, and demands that she move back in with him until their child has been conceived. All the men at the party immediately notice her, and Rees can see that she means business. In this book, the adultery was obviously a huge mistake, and the marriage, eventually, gets fixed. I don’t like books that seem to romanticize or glorify adultery, but I do like books about marriages in trouble. Neither of them actually cheats during the course of this book, but there you go if you have an absolute ban on this type of thing, you might as well not even pick up this book. There’s no question that Rees has committed adultery, and Helene plans to have an affair in order to get pregnant. No doubt about it, it’s an ugly situation. But when Helene sets about finding a man to father the child she desires, Rees undergoes a change of heart. He’s convinced that she won’t, since Helene never took the slightest amount of pleasure in his arms. Rees refuses, contemptuously telling her to take a lover. In the first chapter of this book, Helene swallows her pride and goes to Rees to beg for a divorce, because she longs to be a mother and will never lay with Rees again. Humiliated, Helene moved out, and the mistress, an opera singer named Alina McKenna, moved in. They have been bitterly estranged since, several years ago, Rees paraded his mistress in front of Helene (and the rest of the ton).

They are both gifted musicians, with all the eccentricities that go with artistry. Rees, who is also Count Godwin, is slovenly, boorish, and selfish to the point of cruelty. Helene is prickly, critical, edgy, and desperate. I started enjoying this book on the very first page, when I immediately saw that Helene and Rees Holland are not particularly likable characters. I think that this author has developed a lot as a writer since then, as Your Wicked Ways is one of the best historical romances I’ve read this year. Several years ago, I read Eloisa James’ Enchanting Pleasures and found it irritating beyond belief.

Your wicked ways eloisa james