Review: An Unladylike Offer
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 06 14, 2014
This book is the sequel to The Inconvenient Duchess and focuses on the villain of that book.  After leaving with the emerald necklace the Duchess gave him, he had joined the army and served with distinction.  After he leaves the army, he must live one year scandal free if he wants a reward offered to him by the Prince Regent.Esme Danville lives with her abusive father who wants to marry her off to a man his age, if not older and just as abusive. Seeing no way out, she decides to become someone's mistress and thus get the marriage called off.  After seeing St. John breaking up with his mistress without laying a hand on her, she decides he is the one she wants.  After hearing her outlandish and most unladylike proposal, he refuses and ends up taking her to his brother's house, a place he is not welcome.  They do agree that they may stay under certain conditions.  The duchess tries to introduce her to eligible men without success.  Esme only has eyes for St. John who is trying to live down his infamous and deal with an addiction to laudanum he uses to deal with wartime memories.  It is hard to ignore Esme and his resolve slowly starts to crumble.After their inevitable return to London, Esme has to endure abuse from her father and despairs of not seeing St. John again.  He does get the reward and faces one challenge after another to  rescue her and get their happily ever after.Because I always wanted to know what happened to him after the end of the first book, I went ahead and bought this one.I think it is good and it kept my attention, something not all Regencies do.  I do recommend it to others who read the first book not only because of  St. John, but also shows how the people in the first book have prospered.  I do suggest they read the books in order as events in the first book are mentioned more than once.