His Wicked Wish

February 29, 2016
Candelabra and horse-drawn carriages stylishly adorn Drake’s fifth Cinderella Sisterhood Regency romance (after Bella and the Beast), a spirited but sometimes predictable romance between two tainted blue bloods with separate revenge agendas. Actress Maddy Swann makes her living on the stage, just like her parents did. Her dream is to own a women’s clothing shop. To get the money, she organizes a private auction to sell her virgin self to the highest bidder as his mistress for one year. Nate Atwood, the rakish Viscount Rowley, offers a bid too good to be true: for marriage, not a mistress. He intends to scandalize his snobbish, tyrannical father. The unconventional business arrangement gets complicated when Maddy and Nate fall deeply in love, and then the shocking secrets of their pedigrees come to light. Readers may struggle to enjoy the tale of two very unhappy individuals in a contrived situation amid a long-winded plot of familial vengeance. Drake concludes with a message of love and forgiveness as an antidote to the leads’ bitterness. Agent: Stephanie Kip Rostan, Levine Greenberg Literary.

April 1, 2016
When a nobleman purchases a disgraced woman's betrothal, both get more than they bargained for. Though Madelyn is the granddaughter of a duke, her mother's decision to marry for love has left her on the bottom rungs of society: she's an actress. Ready to retire from the stage and open a shop for ladies' apparel, she gives a hand-selected list of nobles the opportunity to win her as their mistress. She's surprised by Nathan, sudden heir to an earldom, who outbids them all in order to win her as his wife. Nathan wants only to thoroughly shame his father before returning overseas, and Madelyn wants only to confront her grandfather in public, so they both agree to a business arrangement with bedroom benefits. But as they discover each other's true characters, both find themselves in danger of falling in love and violating the agreement. The fifth entry in Drake's Cinderella Sisterhood series has fairy-tale moments but is best when ramping up the melodrama. Curiously, the book's steamiest scene occurs early on, but the romance is strong throughout. A dramatic romance that will thrill fans of marriage-of-convenience stories.

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