Wicked Designs

ByLauren Smith

Release Date: 2017-03-02
Genre: Historical Romance

Score: 4.5

4.5

From 514 Ratings

Description

Fans of the Bridgertons will love this bad boy duke who kidnaps the wrong woman in this steamy historical romance.

Godric St. Laurent, Duke of Essex:
A rake.
A scoundrel.
And now he's a kidnapper.

Godric St. Laurent, Duke of Essex relishes the rakish reputation society has branded him with. He has no plans to marry anytime soon—if ever. But when he kidnaps an embezzler’s niece for revenge, the difficult debutante’s blend of sweetness and sharp tongue both infuriate and intrigue him.

Miss Emily Parr is determined to rid herself of domineering men in her life. A plan that is in shambles after she's kidnapped by the incorrigible duke. But as she tries to outwit him, she finds herself... enjoying not only the scorching kisses he steals but also his companionship. Of course the most wicked and unweddable man she's ever met would be the one she can't imagine living without.

Yet as they surrender to passion, danger from Godric's past threatens to destroy the one thing he and Emily swore they never wanted: love

Warning: This novel includes a lady who refuses to stay kidnapped, a devilish duke with a dark past, and an assortment of charming rogues who have no idea what they’ve gotten themselves into.

Reviews

Ugh
1
By clane06
Honestly the male character is so unlikeable that I can’t even get into this book. I love the bridgerton series but these characters are nothing similar.
Wicked Designs
5
By romancereader77
Really good English romance. I figured it would get boring because it’s longer then some of the other romance books but there was so much dialogue between characters that it pulls you in. The story kept me interested from beginning to end. I just wished Emily’s character wasn’t so much like all the other heroine characters. It’s so clique that she can’t resist a kiss and loses all her will. Godric is typical pushy type also. Which back in them times men probably did act like him.
Wicked Designs
5
By CCTxseashore
Great reading, so much action , so many intricate comings and goings.
Why are there illustrations?!
3
By Lil'Feather
I like the story well enough, and the main characters were enjoyable. However, why are there illustrations in this book?! They are randomly placed, do not enhance the plot or story, and irritated me as a reader. Since it’s not a book geared towards children I see no reason that these illustrations exist in this book. That is the reason for only three stars. I’m hesitant to pursue this authors works if illustrations will be involved.
Downright creepy!
1
By jbteacher86
I tried to like this book, I really did. But I just couldn't get past the creepy premise that these men had abducted this young woman and then she just magically fell for the ringleader. I felt Godric was a one dimensional character with few redeeming qualities. The whole idea that a kidnapping victim would fall for her captor got old and I found that none of the characters were the least bit interesting. One particularly gross detail was that the heroine was ticklish and throughout the story various characters would tickle her until she begged for mercy. Every time there was another tickling scene with a different character, it felt like they were physically assaulting her. Tickling can be tortuous for the recipient and it was way overused throughout the book. Another disturbing aspect was the villain in the story. He didn't just want to possess her as his wife/mistress, he wanted to cruelly demean her and the implication was that if he could, he would hurt her. I couldn't finish the book. None of the characters seemed romantic in any way, they were just overtly sexual and not in the good way! I found it very bizarre for a young woman of that time period to so easily acquiesce to the overtures of five different men at the same time. If I could give the book negative stars, I would...don't bother with this one...it's definitely a waste of time.
This is one of those 'she's different' books
2
By Anon k
The concept of "she's different" is that other girls are all the same.

When the men say it I was thinking okay they only bed women because you know they're rakes okay, "their" women would probably be a certain type to sleep with them in this particular time and setting but when the main character also says she's not like other women I was like no, why did you have to say that?

No we don't all accept a handsome stranger basically sexually assaulting us.

But if we are referring to wit cunning intelligence and beauty those killer combos exist and it's just arrogant and degrading to say otherwise.
Good book
5
By ClaudiaS1234
The book was good, but the beginning was a little hard to like and I would have liked the main character to be more assertive. The reason I am giving it 5 stars is because i can’t deny that i enjoyed the ending and it was defenitely a page turner.
Prefer the Others in the Series
2
By Cea9081
I really wanted to like this one, as I enjoyed all others in the author's series, but after halfway through I just can't continue reading. First off, definitely some Stockholm syndrome going on. Two, Godric is frankly a bit of a bully who never really seems to grasp the awful thing he did in kidnapping her and essentially ruining her life, manhandles her way too much, and doesn't listen when she says "no" (to the point that sometimes it borders on sexual assault in my opinion). I don't care if you know someone desires you, even if there's physical evidence, if they tell you to stop then you NEED TO STOP. It's not ok that this is a recurring theme in romance books, because there are often young people reading them. If a man doesn't respect you enough to stop touching you when you tell him to and basically responds "I know you want it," regardless if you do give in, it is not ok and it is not the way you treat someone you love. This definitely isn't the first book to do that, but it's a concerning message. I know first hand it's possible to love someone and their touch and still have a backbone, by standing up for yourself and sticking to your guns when they don't treat you right.