A wonderful addition to this new Series by McQuiston

THE SPINSTER'S GUIDE TO SCANDALOUS BEHAVIOR
The Seduction Diaries Book 2
Jennifer McQuiston
Avon
ISBN# 978-0-06-233512-8
December 2015
Historical Romance

Book two in this series features Lucy Westmore, the sister of the heroine of the first book - Diary of an Accidental Wallflower. Lucy is a bit out of the ordinary compared to other girls and her sisters. She loves wearing trousers and working in her greenhouse. Her mother is quite adamant that Lucy find herself a husband this coming season (she is twenty one) and Lucy feels the walls closing in on her. Then she receives a letter from her recently deceased spinster Aunt E, who has left her a cottage on the Cornwall coast. She also is quite livid to discover that her father has "sold" it without her knowledge or consent. Taking claim to her life, she cuts her hair, dresses as a boy, and heads to Lizard Bay to see her cottage herself.

Lord Thomas Branston has left London Society after losing his sister. At her funeral, Thomas is also dumped by his fiancee. He heads out of London and stays away for three years. Buying the Heathmore Cottage is something he wants more than anything. He doesn't expect to see the actual owner dressed as a boy and refusing to sell him the property now that he's invested in some of the repairs. Any amount he offers her only seems to make her even angrier.

They both end up heading to Lizard Bay on the same train, and they continually butt heads throughout her stay in Lizard Bay. She's also quite upset that no one in town wants to take her to the hard to find cottage. She blames him for this, as well as creating a "ghostly" presence in the wind that howls around the cottage. Thomas isn't going anywhere and the more he's around Lucy, with a few kisses to add, the more she understands why her aunt thought so highly of him. Reading her aunt's diaries, Lucy is able to understand who her Aunt E was really and why she left her the cottage in the first place. When Lucy discovers the secret to the property and what Thomas didn't tell her, will Lucy be able to look past the hurt in order to see the real treasure of love?

I adored this book, with it's quaint town of Lizard Bay and the delightful people that inhabit it. Lucy was not one of my favorites in this book for the first half. She prejudges and is quite rude nearly all the time towards Thomas. I get that he tried to buy her property without talking to her, but to me that wasn't enough to keep talking to him like he was a bad dog every moment forward. Thomas is a beautiful hero, profoundly devoted to his sister and what happened to her was enough to send him into the countryside indefinitely. He's smart, industrious and has quite the capacity for taking a verbal beating. The romance between them is warm and fuzzy with a few high spots of heated passion. As I mentioned, the secondary characters of the town round this romance out to the point of having me wish there were further books set in this charming town.

Reviewed by Jennifer Jones
Rating: 4 1/2