Prelude to a Scandal by Delilah Marvelle

By reading the back cover blurb for this book you would expect the story to be about "the battle between the lady and the rake is about to begin". Which it is.....Lady Justine is willing to become her friends (I just can't think of a better word right now) mistress in exchange for him helping to get her father out of prison for his book on his views on animals, sex, and how they are similar to humans. Justine is very surprised when Radcliff, Duke of Bradford, makes a different offer to her instead, he wants to marry her in six weeks time but they can not see each other, as he has gotten a terrible scar on his face due to his...problem.

That brings us to what else this book is about. When you open the book and read the Dear Reader letter, you learn that Radcliff is dealing with a sex addiction problem. Which really leads to some, um, interesting happenings in the book that definitely pushed my comfort zone area and left me shaking my head a bit. But Ms Marvelle does make the request to set aside what we think of 1829 and allow her to give us her version of 1829. So, I did try to do that and with saying that, this actually was a very interesting book to read. I did not love it but I did not feel like I was wasting my time reading it. It definitely makes you think that this probably really did happen during this time and I thought the author did a fairly good job handling it.
Overall, I give this book 3 1/2 stars. What dragged it down a bit for me was how Radcliff suddenly had an "aha" moment as to why he acted the way he did and I didn't quite feel that. Also, he had quite a few mood swings and with his problem, even though the romance between Justine and Radcliff seemed very genuine and true, I'm just not sure if it is deep enough to outlast everything. And then there is his (rotten) brothers pregnant mistress, Miranda who is part of the book. I didn't really like her and I thought her twist she added was a bit too much and not needed. There are two more books in this trilogy, Once Upon a Scandal and The Perfect Scandal which I am looking forward to reading. But this book reminds me to always check for that Dear Reader letter so you know what you are getting yourself into because the back blurb may not always define it so clearly! :)