Sinful

by Charlotte Featherstone

Book Overview

In Victorian England vice of every kind can be purchased, and Matthew, the Earl of Wallingford, makes certain he avails himself of every possible pleasure. Bored and jaded, he is as well-known for his coldness as for his licentious affairs with beautiful women. While these numerous dalliances fulfill Matthew's every physical need, they secretly leave him numb and emotionally void. Until one night when he finds himself beaten, eyes bandaged and in...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0373605439
• ISBN13: 9780373605439
• Release Date: April 2010
• Publisher: Spice
• Length: 368 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.1" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

A couple I won't soon forget

I really enjoyed this book. Ms. Featherstone captured a distinct tone & atmosphere that I haven't come across in a Victorian romance before, her writing spoke in a new voice to me. Wallingford (Matthew) & Jane are a unique couple under an old romantic theme - dissolute, Aristocratic rake vs. a plain "Jane" working-class spinster - but they fit. They really do. This book does explore darker themes than most mainstream romances and the hero is not a pseudo-broken man, he truly is broken & defiant. But there are moments of levity & sweetness, too. Jane Matthew, both wear masks of sorts and in their "street persona" they bicker & spar like an old married couple while fighting an undercurrent of attraction that neither wants to want. When these two have a go at each other, it's fun! The plot is character driven and this couple's road to HEA is paved with difficult choices and obstacles that cannot be easily resolved and tidied up but they do find a way. The ending is un-traditional for a romance but I did not feel unsatisfied. You should check out the author's website, she gives an explanation for the ending and provides an epilogue. Personally, I did not need it and felt the ending, as is, served a greater declaration of Jane & Matthew's love But I don't begrudge anyone that need. :) I will not soon forget this book and will anxiously await Ms. Featherstone's newest works.

I loved this book, was hard to put it down!

Great book, the writing flowed well and it was easy to see the charachters in my mind through the artful writing. I recommend this book to anyone looking for a great escape

Sinful

Matthew, the Earl of Wallingford, is a reprobate of the worst kind. His entire life is wrapped around the pursuit of sexual delights and perversions wild enough to send any smart minded woman running. Matthew's persona is that of bored Lord and he refuses to act upon anything that he doesn't enjoy. An artist, Matthew is accosted outside an art gallery one night and is immediately taken to a hospital for treatment. With his face swollen and his eyes unseeing for a time, Matthew heals to the sound of the most wondrous voice he has ever heard, the voice of his nurse, Jane. Jane Rankin, a penniless but genteel woman, works as the companion to a wonderful lady during the day and as a nurse at night. She has never questioned her desire for healing, but when she sees the newest patient she is expected to treat, Jane knows that somehow, her life will never be the same. Her attraction to Matthew is instantaneous and innocent, however, Jane knows that Matthew will demand so much more from her and she is willing to accede to him all things but one. Matthew is a man with secrets, secrets that keep him from being completely honest with Jane. After all, who would want a man like him? Sinful made me cry more than once. I was almost in a tortured frame of mind the farther into this book I read. I was enraptured by Matthew and his personality. I could see underneath his bluster and blunder that there was a man who just wanted to be loved. He wanted to be able to love in return without any threat to his person or to those of the people he loved. His life was more than parties. He kept his secret desires very much hidden from the rest of the world, and readers find out exactly what this is. I hope they can forgive him his transgressions. I know I did. Readers might find the ending of Sinful incomplete. This is explained or will be explained on Ms. Featherstone's website and will include a special treat. Sinful has an epilogue that ties everything up quite nicely. I did love Sinful exactly as it was released, but if I am honest, the epilogue completed the love story of Matthew and Jane and I needed, as a romantic and as a reader, to see that their love continued and was forever. Sinful is decadence at its best. I had no choice but to read it cover to cover - the story is just that good. Charlotte Featherstone is now on my list of authors to watch! Talia Reviewed for Joyfully Reviewed

Lovin' Me Some Sin!

Matthew, the Earl of Wallingford, is a man of complete and utter vice. Rather than play the hypocrite and act the gentleman by day and rogue by night, Wallingford shrugs off the bother and instead fuels his insatiable rakehell reputation all hours of every day. The fact of the matter is that he knows he's damaged goods and completely beyond repair, besides, his jaded soul isn't worth any one's saving. His is a black and broken heart that annoyingly continues to beat within his chest while he sulks about his life from shadow to shadow. But when he's attacked, picked clean of his identity and left for dead in the raunchy East End of London, an angel named Jane is about to shine a blinding light upon all the gnarled wounds of his aching soul. Jane Rankin has been incredibly fortunate in what could have easily been a very unfortunate life and she doesn't take any of it for granted. Born a bastard, Jane's aristocratic father turned out his own young child along with her mistress mother onto the streets when he married, forcing Jane to endure what no child should ever have to experience. Thankfully she was taken in by Lady Blackwood, an elderly Victorian feminist who believes in independence and self-sufficiency. For fourteen years, Jane has been Lady Blackwood's lady's companion and just when she thought she knew herself in all her entirety, a beautiful dark angel lands practically into her lap while nursing at London College Hospital. Knowing that Lady Blackwood won't be there for her forever, Jane has pursued a career in nursing and it's not just a means to an end either, Jane loves her job and empowers a strict code of honor where her patients are concerned. But when a sinfully handsome patient becomes her charge, Jane feels a deeply repressed part of herself awakening as his deep timbered voice sensually draws out her name, turning it from plain to beautiful. Suddenly she's breaking all her rules, all her personal honor to touch a man who effortlessly ignites a fire that's determined to change the very essence of who she is. Wallingford has never thought of a woman as being more than a vessel for his own release but Jane's clean scent and soothing voice has dark poetry spilling from his sinful lips and a rushing heat to sweep through his previously empty soul. But Wallingford's fantasies paint a sensually beautiful woman and when his bruised face heals, he discovers that his angel is nothing but a dowdy lady's maid and that's after he tears through her heart and pride with his slicing tongue. However, as his disappointment fades, Wallingford can't stop thinking about Jane and his need to claim her has him disregarding the inevitable - additional - pain that he's surely to cause her for there are three things that Wallingford excels above all others: Sex, pain and paint. Jane can't reconcile the Matthew that made her heart and body sing with the disreputable rake that all of England knows as Lord Wallingford. He's a man renowned for using women

entertaining heated Victorian romance

The Earl of Wallingford has no respect for women, but is far from a misanthrope when it comes to the opposite gender. In fact Matthew thinks females are good for one thing: sex. Thus he is a rake. Matthew is also an artist with no interest in inheriting his title. He goes so far as to finance a gallery by selling erotic painting at an auction. Street pads assault and rob Matthew who is severely injured. Taken to a hospital his eyes are bandaged. As he heals, he finds himself looking forward to seeing his nursing angel, Jane Rankin. He is attracted to the sound of her voice, knows her smell intimately and relishes her touch when she helps him. Jane falls in love with him, but once the bandages are removed he fails to recognize her. At a wedding, they meet again and Matthew realizes she is his angel. They begin a tryst, but she is ready for a happily ever after, but childhood abuse leaves him unable to commit himself to her. This is an entertaining heated Victorian romance starring a tortured soul who detests the hypocrisy of the aristocracy and a lowly nurse who simply loves him. The story line is driven by their sparring, but it is Wallingford who brings a vulnerability to the plot that makes this a strong historical. Sinful is a terrific tale with an upcoming online coda. Harriet Klausner