Indecent by Darcy Burke
The Phoenix Club #4

I do so LOVE these series that I fall into, finish a book, and cannot wait for the continuation of. Each story is a standalone BUT…the characters as so wonderful I can’t wait to return to them to see what will happen next.

What I liked:
* The return to the Phoenix Club and tweaking brain cells to remember why it “became” and remembering why I want to find out, I hope…eventually, who Lucien will end up with…I hope I am right!
* Remembering the fight and what precluded it (not in this book) and why Prudence ended up kidnapped
* Bennett: beleaguered aristocrat with a heavy debt, a good man, carries a heavy burden, interesting, caring, willing to do what it takes, harassed by heritage…hoping he can find a way forward and a way forward for his family.
* Prudence: adopted, illegitimate, wise, curious, intelligent, and intriguing…never overstepped her status but…her status was more than she realized.
* Bennet’s Eccentric family…and trying to figure out the genetic/whatever reasons they are the way they are…
* The links to past books in the series – loved those books and characters in them
* That the rumor creator toward the end was exposed BUT am thinking that person could do with a book to themselves if they are worthy
* The idea of family…and that it is there sometimes when we least expect it
* All of it really…could continue but will just say…it is definitely worth reading although…

What I didn’t like:
* The pressure of society
* Some of the people unwilling to see beyond their noses
* The pressure/weight of the situations that both Bennett and Prudence found themselves in
* Having to wait for book five

Did I enjoy this book? Yes
Would I read more in this series? Definitely

Thank you to the author for the ARC – This is my honest review.

4.5 Stars ( )

The end of the last book, Intolerable, left us scratching our heads and wondering what was going on with lady’s companion Prudence Lancaster. When Charlotte and Ruark arrived at the inn to collect Prudence, they found an empty room and a note from Prudence. The note said she’d eloped. Since Prudence was quiet and secretive about her personal life, they assumed it was possible and left for the beginning of their HEA. But …

Prudence endures hours of pain and discomfort from being trussed up, head covered, and bouncing on the floor of an old coach. When the villains finally drag her into a room at an inn and remove her head covering, she realizes her abductor is none other than Bennet St. James, Viscount Glastonbury. WHAT! He is as stunned as she is because she is NOT the woman he’d paid the thugs to abduct. No, he’d expected to see Lady Charlotte and to convince her to elope with him. Now what?

After Prudence gives Bennet a thorough dressing down and he totally expresses his sorrow and mortification at being part of such a heinous act – and he continues to apologize ad nauseum, she finally begins to believe he is truly remorseful.

Bennet is an exceedingly desperate man. He and his estate are destitute and he has a plethora of much-loved older family members to support. If he cannot come up with the wherewithal to pay his father’s debts and get the estate operating profitably, those very eccentric old ladies will have no place to live nor anyone to care for them. Lady Cassandra and he had met and liked each other and she had even intimated she was amenable to his suit – but – when her father told him that his suit wouldn’t be welcome, Bennet thought it was just from the father and that Charlotte would still be amenable. That is why he had her abducted – and he certainly didn’t intend for any lady to be treated as those thugs had treated Prudence.

Bennet and Prudence concoct a plan to get her back to London before she is missed too much. If they handle it right, they can get her back without her reputation being damaged and she can continue to work as a lady’s companion. Fate, however, has other plans for these two. A storm rages for days preventing travel at all – and it also causes a tree to fall on the inn’s stables – where Bennet’s carriage is stored. The carriage is left beyond repair – and he certainly doesn’t have the money to replace it.

Through all of the trials of the storm, Bennet and Prudence come to truly like each other – and more. However, they each know they will have to become strangers after they return to London. Bennet absolutely must marry an heiress and as a lady’s companion, Prudence wouldn’t be in the company of a peer. Things seem bleak indeed.

After they return, Prudence is welcomed back into her former life and Bennet continues to seek an heiress for a wife. Then there are some shocking discoveries made and life changes. Can the two of them make a go of it? Can Bennet resolve himself to accept his new family situation? Will Prudence be welcomed into either of her new families?

I thoroughly enjoyed the read, but just could never come to respect Bennet for his choices. I am sure we’ll see more of what happens with Bennet and Prudence in the next book, Intolerable, because that book features Ada Treadway (Prudence’s best friend) and Maximillian Hunt, Marquess of Warfield (Prudence’s half-brother).

I voluntarily read and reviewed an Advanced Reader Copy (ARC) of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. ( )