Tempting the Vicar by Liana LeFey

Tracy’s rating: 2.5 of 5 stars

Series: The Wicked Waywards, #2

Release Date: January 17, 2022

When Olivia St. Peters met Lord Devlin Wayward, she knew that she had finally found a man who wanted her for her and not for her father’s money or power. And despite her father AND Lord Devlin discouraging her attachment to him – Olivia decides that Lord Devlin Wayward is the man she is going to marry. But what she doesn’t know is the man she originally met and the man she is now aggressively chasing are not the same man!

Lord Daniel Wayward is not only the son of the late Duke of Winterbourne, but he is also a country vicar and Lord Devlin’s twin. He is currently in London masquerading as his twin after his brother pulled a prank that landed him in bed with a broken leg and a lot of people believing he is Daniel. Now Daniel has reluctantly agreed to go to London in Devlin’s place to finalize a business venture with former pirate turned privateer Mr. St. Peters and is given a vague warning that St. Peters’ daughter has a bit of tendre for him and that he will have to discourage her without destroying the business venture. Sounds simple enough. But the reality of the situation is much different than Devlin portrayed and Olivia is nothing like he told him she was. Soon Daniel finds himself falling for Olivia, but revealing his deception will ruin more than just her opinion of him, so to do the “right” thing Daniel, breaks Olivia’s heart and returns to the country, feeling guilty and heartbroken himself. Months pass and HEA doesn’t even seem like a possibility, but as Shakespeare so eloquently wrote “The course of true love never did run smooth”.

Let me start by stating that I did not read the first book in this series and I think that if I had, my review for this book would have been much different. That said, for me, this book was a miss, the deception dragged on for way too long, and not having read the previous book definitely left me at a disadvantage, as the author glossed over Devlin’s actions in order to prevent spoilers. Not only that but I found Olivia to be completely unlikeable, she refused to consider anyone’s desires save her own, and then when she was unavoidably hurt, she played the victim card to the hilt. I strongly believe that if I had read the first book before reading this book, I would have still disliked Olivia, but I might have liked the overall story a bit more. Anyway, for me this book is a pass, but please don’t let that stop you from trying this book and judging for yourself, especially if you read the first book. This book is the second book in the series and I would HIGHLY recommend reading the books in order.

*I am voluntarily leaving a review for an eARC that I requested and was provided to me by the publisher. All opinions in this review are my own.*