The Wicked Cousin by Stella Riley

The Wicked Cousin by Stella Riley

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Not sure what happened with this book. It pulled me in and I couldn’t stop reading until I was done. And no it wasn’t a short book that I could actually read in one gulp. Took me a day. A day I was supposed to be off working. But I couldn’t stop reading. And . . . well . . .

This is both the fourth Stella Riley book I’ve read, and fourth book in the Rockliffe series. A series I started reading in 2014. In my last review I noted I’d read 11 books by the author of the book I had read, all after June 26 2017. And here I note I’ve read 4 books in 3 years. Hmms. Hehe.

Right, so, this book. I got pulled into this book through one of the best prologue’s I’ve read. It tells the tale of Theo and Sebastian Audley. Twins. When both were around 7 or so, Sebastian was locked in his room and not allowed to leave. He yelled, he screamed, he pounded on the door. Eventually he broke through the window and fell out to land far down on the ground. No, he didn’t die – that’d be Theo that died. No, not because they were twins or something. No, Sebastian had been kept away from Theo, without any explanation, because Theo had contracted an illness and they didn’t want Sebastian to become ill as well. And then, while Sebastian was violently trying to get to Theo, Theo died.

Life for young Sebastian (always Sebastian, never Seb, or Bastian) became very constrained. Gone was the planned departure to Eton for schooling. No, he’d be home schooled. Gone were most activities. For the father wanted Sebastian to reach adulthood. Though he went about it the wrong way. Sebastian aged, and came to the realization as to why things were the way they were. He had college to look forward to, though, he just had to reach it. And then . . . unlike every other person of his age, while he was in fact allowed to go to college, he was forced to do so with something like guard – he would be there to study and that’s it (with the only two outlets being music and chess). Not liking the constraints placed upon him, he got a degree that his father didn’t want him to get – law. So that he’d have the ability to make his own money. Upon graduation, though, he came into some money from an Aunt. So that law plan went out the window. He got the degree, but didn’t’ go into practice. No, he was free now. He was going to do everything he hadn’t been allowed to do for something like 20 years. Unlike most people of his age, well, specifically men, he reached the ripe old age of, well, something like 20 or 21, still a virgin. He took care of that rather quick. Then went on something of an orgy across Europe.

The book opens, after the prologue, when he’s about 28, in Hungry, and kind of tired of the life he’d built up to that point. Though it’s kind hard to get to a more respectable settled life now, though. What with his reputation. His . . . activities are quite well known through scandal sheets and the like. Then he received a letter, blunt not very informative, indicating that his father was at death’s door. So, Sebastian headed home. Took a month but he got there.

Meanwhile we have Cassandra Delahaye. She’s a kind of character I’ve seen before, though even so she seemed to be her own character. Not a retread from others. The thing I was referring to though was the part where she’s one of those women with a good reputation, not exactly the most beautiful of the women out and about waiting to be married, nor the least attractive. And most potential mates seem to find her nice to talk to, not to date. She does have suiters, though. The very boring kind. She’s not the kind who hasn’t had offers for marriage, but she’s never entertained any of them. For, as noted, boring people.

Also somewhat normal in a book like this, Sebastian and Cassandra come into each other’s orbits and they ‘meet bad’ – specifically they meet when Cassandra ended up in the library to catch her breath and think (while at a party/ball), and hides when someone else barges in (a woman found alone in a library at a party would be a scandal, don’t-you-know). It was Sebastian who had burst in. He doesn’t see Cassandra, though, for she’s hidden. Several women saw him go in, though, and follow him. They circle him, peppering him with questions, and trying to flirt with him (his ‘very bad reputation’ excites and arouses a good bunch of the young women). He finally gets them to leave. He locks himself in to escape from more intruders. Whereupon Cassandra realizes that she’s locked in a room with a man she doesn’t know. She’s found, Sebastian yells at her (assuming she’s another ‘groupie’), but before things advance much, another woman appears. One who can’t be diverted. So Cassandra has to hide again, and Sebastian has to let the other woman in. And I’m revealing all of this because the woman who enters is Sebastian’s former mistress – and a woman who plays a big role in this book. Sebastian had told her ‘no’ a long time ago, but she’s followed him around Europe, and now finds him in London.

Right, so. Very readable book. Very entertaining. Oh, and all of the above is from the first couple of chapters.

Rating: 5

August 3 2017



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