The Wicked Wedding of Miss Ellie Vyne by Jayne Fresina

Blurb:
By night Ellie Vyne fleeces unsuspecting aristocrats as the dashing Count de Bonneville. By day she avoids her sisters' matchmaking attempts and dreams up inventive insults to hurl at her childhood nemesis, the arrogant, far-too-handsome-for-his-own-good, James Hartley.

James finally has a lead on the villainous, thieving Count, tracking him to a shady inn. He bursts in on none other than "that Vyne woman" . . . in a shocking state of dishabille. Convinced she is the Count's mistress, James decides it's best to keep your enemies close. Very close. In fact, seducing Ellie will be the perfect bait . . .

This book was an absolute delight to read!  It is cute, fun, sassy and sexy and I loved smiling so much when reading it.  I adored the fact that both Ellie and James are older, twenty seven and thirty seven respectively.  Now, they both acted like the were younger than that in the beginning but they grew up throughout the story.  I loved all the banter that flew between them and with the fact that it had been going on for almost seventeen years, you can see how they have formed a deep bond over knowing the worst in each other.  Ellie is brazen and unapologetic with her argumentative nature and loves to laugh.  James is a bit more serious yet a dashing rake and decides that it is time to take this woman in hand...and that naturally does not go over well.  James decides he will marry Ellie, Ellie flatly refuses and comes up with a counter offer that leads them discovering all the passion they have together.  Yet underneath all the fun and trickery, James is dealing with a hardship from his randy, carefree youth days and coming face to face with the past helps push him to the more steadfast man he becomes.  There were a few things that could have used a bit more history explained such as why Ellie was so eager to please her step-family when all the did was tell her how to change and I also would have liked a bit more depth to James' past explained. The next book should be interesting as it features a young lady, twelve I believe, who is so in love with James she sneaks away in his carriage and is quite petulant so I am anxious to she how she grows and develops.  Like I said, even though it lacked a bit of depth, it is a delightfully fun, sexy romance and was just what I needed after a long week of hard work!  4 stars

eARC provided by Sourcebooks Casablanca via netgalley

Sydney Dovedale series
Characters are recurring, probably best enjoyed in order

                                 June 4th 2013