Unwrapping: Review of A WILD NIGHT'S BRIDE, a novella by Victoria Vane

After reading Victoria Vane's A BREACH OF PROMISE, I excitedly and rather impatiently awaited the chance to read A WILD NIGHT'S BRIDE which Victoria had told me would be a full-length novel. Well, imagine my surprise when she asked me to read an eARC of A WILD NIGHT'S BRIDE and it turned out to be a novella. I asked her about it because I had understood it was going to be full-length novel. She explained that she's writing four novellas that link together to form a whole story involving six characters. The series is called THE DEVIL DEVERE after the one character who connects them all. I love it!! We get more stories in one place. A WILD NIGHT'S BRIDE is the first of these stories and let me just say this, THE DEVIL DEVERE series, ... well, it's off to a great start!

Blurb for A WILD NIGHT'S BRIDE:

What happens when a struggling actress and a grieving widower come together in a night of unbridled debauchery orchestrated by a bored and machinating rake? WITH THE DEVIL IN CHARGE ... THERE WILL BE HELL TO PAY...

She’s a lonely lady down on her luck... Phoebe Scott, alias Kitty Willis, is a struggling Covent Garden actress with a bruised heart and a closely guarded secret.
He’s steadfast and eminently respectable... Sir Edward Chambers, Ned to his intimates, is guilt-ridden over his beloved wife’s death and avowed to live out a rustic and mundane life … of celibacy.
With the devil in charge — there will surely be hell to pay. Devil in disguise, Viscount Ludovic DeVere, is determined to return his best friend, Ned, to the land of the living. His meddling machinations result in a night of mind blowing passion after which “dull dog Ned” awakes to find himself in the King of England’s bed!


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Phoebe Scott finds herself down on her luck now that the Covent Garden Theatre has closed for renovations. She needs to find herself a protector, someone who may perhaps pay her bills in return for her affections so that she might pursue her dream of being an actress on the London stage. She allows her friend, Mrs. Andrews, the theatre's wardrobe mistress, to convince her that since Viscount Ludovic DeVere left his calling card for her at the theatre that she should pursue him as a possible protector. She takes on her stage character, Kitty Willis, to attend the grand party at the King's Palace - a notorious bawdy house. Her hope, to meet and woo DeVere into becoming her protector.

Ned Chambers, still grieving widower, has arrived in London to arrange lodgings for when he brings his coming of age daughter, Vesta, for the Season. It's been a long time since he's enjoyed anyone or anything and his old friend, DeVere, is determined to bring his old friend back to life. An invitation to the grandest, most decadently erotic party of the year is just what DeVere thinks his old friend, Ned, needs to get back on track. Ned finds no appeal in the goings - on at the King's Palace until he meets an intriguingly beautiful masked woman named Kitty. When Kitty, who is really Phoebe in disguise, turns her seduction on him but is rebuffed, she informs him that she wasn't interested in him in the first place but that she's there only to meet Viscount Ludovic DeVere. Ned finds this strangely humorous even as jealousy begins to rear it's ugly head.

Viscount Ludovic DeVere is certainly not looking for a commitment with a woman, any woman even one as lovely as Kitty but he doesn't see any reason to forgo the pleasure of her company. When Prince George dares DeVere to try something nearly impossible. Kitty and he concoct a plan dragging poor Ned along on a ride that could land all three of them in the Tower.

Now, I would love to tell you more but then that would take away all of the fun of you reading this delightful novella for yourself. The antics are wonderfully humorous, the dare extremely naughty, and the result will have you smiling long after you finish reading A WILD NIGHT'S BRIDE. Victoria Vane knows her history. She knows her Georgian era so well that you will feel as if you were transported back in time and were experiencing this adventure as your own. The settings, the characters and their speech, all lend themselves to a hundred plus pages of absolute delightful fun and steamy romance with a sweet finale.

A WILD NIGHT’S BRIDE by Victoria Vane is a sexy, bawdy, racy, frolicking Georgian good time reminiscent of TOM JONES and MOLL FLANDERS with a hint of THE HANGOVER! I highly recommend you read this novella and if the ones that follow are as much fun, we are all in for a delightfully good time.

Happy Reading Everyone!

A WILD NIGHT'S BRIDE by Victoria Vane, published by Breathless Press, ebook format, release date, April 27, 2012.