The Duchess in His Bed (Sins for All Seasons #4)

Unfortunately, Heath’s Victorian-era follow-up to the riveting The Scoundrel in Her Bed has a slow, formulaic plot. The recently widowed Selena Sheffield, Duchess of Lushing, is in dire straits because the duke’s vast properties will revert to the Crown unless she can produce a son with sufficient rapidity to claim that her husband fathered the child. Hoping to get pregnant in a hurry, she visits Aiden Trewlove’s private London club for noblewomen, seeking the owner himself. Aiden and his siblings, all illegitimate, were tossed away by their noble father and raised in poor conditions. But unlike his siblings, he has no desire to marry back into the aristocracy, striving for business success instead. Beautiful Selena tempts him, as his secretly produced son could be a future duke. In previous Sins for All Seasons novels, Heath brought together couples who were already acquainted; perhaps this entry seems colder because Aiden and Selena are essentially strangers and get to know each other slowly and without real chemistry. Even series fans will find this a disappointment. (Aug.)