Wicked all Day by Liz Carlyle

http://www.lizcarlyle.com/

Quick! Someone I need a Margarita!

Repeat three times. Liz Carlyle writes dark stories, Liz Carlyle writes dark stories, Liz Carlyle writes dark stories. Don't be deceived by the smiling woman on the cover, it is the last smile you'll see.

Wicked All Day is the story of Zoe Armstrong (her father was the hero in My False Heart) and Stuart Rowland (his mother is the heroine from (A Woman Scorned), so we are bringing two of Carlyle's families together...the Rowland's and the Armstrong's...Carlyle has a handy dandy pedigree chart on her website for further information. Anyway, we get to see old friends again...lot's of old friends.

If anyone has read My False Heart, you will remember that Zoe is the illegitimate child of Elliott Rannoch. She is a wild child and she's been incredibly spoiled by her father. She is constantly getting into one scrape after another...enter Robin Rowland, her childhood friend and fellow scrape getter-iner. One night at a party, she becomes enraged with her father and seeks out her friend Robin. Now, Robin is slightly drunk and depressed because he's in love with his mistress and he doesn't know what to do about it. Anyway, these two come together to comfort each other and get carried away and caught by Robin's older brother, Stuart the resident scrape getter-iner rescuer. Stuart has also dragged along his mistress, who isn't happy with him because he just dumped her. Stuart at this point realizes his feeling for Zoe, but insists that Robin do the right thing and marry Zoe. So, to avoid a scandal, the atrocious spoiled jerk Robin; the I've ruined everyone's life Zoe and the I must watch my brother marry the woman I love, Stuart and their scandalized family go to Stuart's country estate for a perfectly horrendous miserable time.

It is at this estate that I truly learn to despise the constantly drunk, whiney Robin...what a jerk. Of course, he's not the hero of the book, but still for supposedly being Zoe's best friend and her fiance, he is a real jerk jerk jerk jerk. I did like Zoe after she finally started to grow up and she's a good match for staid uptight Stuart. Small qualm: since there was sex between Zoe and Stuart (remember Zoe is his brother's fiancee) and then that big baby Robin (who is supposed to love his mistress) and a bar maid, I have to say these people have the morals of a snail.

This book was well-written, but gee-wiz it was one heavy duty, filed with lots of angst, 421 pages of sweat and tears book. If you've read any of Carlyle's other books, go ahead and read this one and catch up on the family do's, but just be warned, this is really an intense book. So, tread carefully.

Place/Time: Late Regency England
Rating:
Sensuality Rating: Hot