ARC REVIEW Lord of Pleasure by Erica Ridley

Lord of Pleasure is book two of Erica Ridley's new series Rogues to Riches. This is another great story by Erica Ridley, the characters are likeable and the whole situation is humorous. It's a fantastic Cinderella type story. Camellia is the perfect daughter she does as she's told, she sings when they want her too and what they want her to sing, she's also the sensible one, but her parents go too far when the arrange her marriage to a much older gentleman who doesn't even have the courtesy to actually ask her, then leaves for a month. Lord Wainwright, Michael, is tired of getting his image drawn as a caricature in the paper linking him to all sorts of gossip and rakish behaviour, sometimes it's true but he's tired of being made fun of, as a joke his friends bet him he couldn't stay out of the gossip column for 40 days.

In an atypical act of rebellion Camellia accepts the invitation meant for her sister to the notorious Lambley's masquerade ball. Once there she is swept off her feet by a masked man who seems to not only listen to her but enjoys talking to her. She has four weeks until her fiance returns and has the banns announced so she decides to enjoy her time with the masked man and returns to the masquerade ball every week.

So far Michael is succeeding in avoiding the gossip rags, he's seen in all the right places and attends his duty in the House of Lords and is terribly bored the only thing keeping his interest is Lady X a wonderful woman whom he has no idea who she really is. The other perplexing thing he comes across is the obvious dislike the Grenville sisters have for him. He has no idea that he made one off hand remark that caused the backing out a charity that was run by one of the sister and out of loyalty all the sister must hate him too. It doesn't take very long before Camellia discovers her masked man is none other than Lord Wainwright. Camellia is despaired that the man she has fallen in love with the same man who is a notorious seducer and who inadvertently hurt her sister. Camellia needs the strength to finally stand up to her parents and shake things up a bit, but can she find the courage Michael knows she has or will it all be for nothing.        

Overall, it is a great Cinderella retold story.