(Nov) 3.5* I started off liking this quite a bit, but as the book progressed, I found myself more and more annoyed by Pen (and her name - call her Penny or Penelope - but Pen just grated on my nerves). Cam's mother slept with both his father and his father's brother, and no one in the Ton knows for sure who his father is. Labeled as a potential bastard son of a slut, he saw first hand how love can destroy and swears to have nothing to do with it. He wants a simple woman who will be above reproach who can help restore the ducal standing. Pen's family has a pretty lousy reputation, having lost money and made bad choices and she's not the one who will help the ducal reputation. At 19, Pen knew she'd been in love with future Duke Cam since they were childhood friends, but also knew that he disdained the idea of love and therefore she figured he'd never love her. Deciding that she could never live with him, loving him while getting no response from him in return, she said no to his proposal and immediately left to travel Europe w/her Aunt. FF 9 years and her brother Peter, on his death bed, begs old friend Cam to find Pen and bring her home safe and sound. All the years Pen has been out of England have led to salacious rumors about Pen's less-than-appropriate behavior, and Peter wants her home and protected. Cam takes off to find Pen, who is not happy about being dragged home. However, as her aunt has recently died and she is traveling alone, she agrees to go. There is an undercurrent of attraction between the two during their travles, and a disaster that leaves them with no choice but to marry. Once they are married, their bedroom connection is hot and spicy, but the love Pen years for is still missing. As always, things are resolved, love is admitted to, and they live HEA. My biggest problem with this book is it relied so much on what I call 'eye-reading.' Pen can look into Cam's eyes when making love and see that behind his arousal, he is closed off to her. Cam can see the same in Pen's eyes (she's afraid to let herself go as he might either realize she loves him or even worse, say it outloud). Their sex life is active to say the least, but their connecton outside the bedroom - as well as their lack of communicaton (other than trying to break through to each other and delve behind what they don't see in each others' eyes) and a layer of lies (mostly on Pen' side) does not help things. There is a secondary love story between Pen's brother and the sister of Cam's enemy, that ends up twisted up with Pen and Cam's story. I don't know, Pen just really, really irked me in much of this book. Cam was fine and I think forgave and gave in more than he should have had to. I will read the next one, but overall, this is not one of Anna Campbell's better series. I can officially and safely say that this is my favorite book in the series so far. I feel like the characters were much more developed than in the previous books, the storyline was intriguing with a minor one in the mix to spice things up. Penelope refused Camden's proposal 9 years ago because she didn't want to be married without love and she was sure she couldn't be the kind of wife he needed. Both Camden and Penelope's families have been immersed in scandal, and unlike Penelope, Camden cared a whole lot about fixing his family's reputation. Even though Penelope would have brought some of her family history into the marriage he was sure he could tame her, but Pen didn't want to be tamed. Pen took off to travel the continent with a relative whilst Cam did his damnedest to fix his family reputation and find a meek, reputation-free wife. When a promise to his old friend brings both of them together, it seems scandal won't leave them alone, as they are forced to get married. I really enjoyed the character development of both Penelope and Camden, I loved getting an in-depth look into their minds and how they clicked and changed throughout the book. I didn't get much of that with the other storyline with both Harry and Sophie, but since they were younger in comparison and more innocent than anything else, there didn't seem to be much of a damage they'd had to deal with.As always I really loved the writing and I'm definitely looking forward to the next book!
