Return of the Wicked Earl (The Shadows) Paperback – December 12, 2021

Sadie Bosque writes wonderful stories with great characters, adventure, fun, drama, steamy romance and happy ever afters! These 2 struggled to gain their loving, trusting relationship but they succeeded! A great story!pamarellaPRCS

I enjoyed the varied storied line very much. It was different from most novels covering this time period. I disliked the novel in that in some places the paragraphs were too wordy. The book left the reader hanging to the point that by the time one gets the sequel, one has forgotten most of the underlying suspicions.

Will his return erase his faults …Two books in a raw with returning husbands, and while both circumstances were different, both ill-behaved toward their young spouses.Blake is no dream girl’s Prince Charming, he might have duped Annalise about his true nature, but he is truly the bad boy with a lazy side.He injected everything he had to conquer the girl of the season but once he had won here, he clearly lost all interest in her. Worth, he treated her like a nobody, wounding her deeply in her soul.His devastating experience kind of erased in his mind his bad actions to his wife, until reality slaps him in the face and reminds him how he ill-treated her and pardon is not something he will gain simply by coming back from the dead.But for long, he does not listen, just following the same pattern as prior his disappearance with more demands and broken promises.But the past is written in stone, so it can’t be erased but atoned.And it is a lesson Drake struggles to understand.He must give to receive, and he alas gives nothing. He believes he changed, but it is mostly those around who moved too, he never questioned his actions, taking everything for granted. And even on the eve of losing his wife, he can’t tear his blinders and accepts he will have to share more than a few words with her to clean the slate.Annalise had stars in the eyes when she was wooed by the rake of the season, until he doused the fire burning between on their wedding-night and the days after. In a matter of hours, the man who seduced her is no more, just a stranger who at the best ignore her and at the worst wound her by his actions and threatening words.His disappearance is the final straw over their love.His return disrupts once more her life, she had accepted her fate, as a destitute widow and was ready to the page of her abysmal failed first marriage but with the return for the dead of her late husband, she has to create once more a new path for herself. And she is lost, whom to believe, the man who courted her so outrageously, the husband who neglected and hurt her or this man who professes his love but still acts like only his whims count.What of her, her hope, her safety, her dream when he has shattered everything not once but twice.This is no all rosy read, not it is a Regency set story. Women were disregarded and overlooked, they were wives or prostitutes but nothing else in many men’s closed eyes. The speech of Blake’s father, OMG, so much trash!And while there is no hope to see things move before centuries, Blake has his eyes finally opened, it is violent, heart wrenching but needed. And he can thank his lucky star Annalise is no virago, and very forgiving, because groveling he should have, much more.5 stars𝗦𝘁𝗲𝗮𝗺 𝗹𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗹 onscreen lovemaking scenes.

The first half of this book was strange and felt wrong. Blake, the antihero, is wooden, an automaton stuck on one gear; don’t speak of the past. Yet the past is the crux of the conflict.And that conflict is held together by the most gossamer thread of believability. A charming rogue falls for a beautiful debutante. He woos her like he is smitten, but a five minute chat with his father (who conveniently dies before we even meet him) minutes before he goes to his wife on his wedding night (why was his father even there!) makes him take his wife without any thought to her pleasure. Seriously.Then, after one other intimacy (aborted due to the hero being drunk and cruel), he disappears for 14 months in which time we are to believe he was declared dead and a new Earl set up? Yet the legal aspects of declaring a missing person dead were never addressed. Neither were the legalities of reinstating a dead person as Earl. He just shows up and his cousin turns everything over to him. And their interactions were bizarre. I have to believe it was so we might suspect the cousin of being the villain.Possible spoilers to follow.But even worse than this lapse in careful attention to details is the fact that when the heroine finds herself pregnant, we are to believe that the Duke steps in to try and save her and her child? If she had birthed a male child, HE would be heir. There would be no reason for the Duke to protect them. It’s not like her baby would be a bastard. And after she loses the baby, they still carry on with the engagement which wasn’t even announced until more than a year after Annalise‘s husband went missing and the miscarriage. None of it made sense other than a way to have Blake return on the day of his wife’s betrothal ball.And it just gets stranger. A peer is kidnapped, tortured, and sold into slavery, but no one in authority is trying to get to the bottom of it? It’s as if everyone shrugs their shoulders in a collective “oh well, that’s a shame, but glad you are back my good fellow” and returns to business as usual, including the hero.There are some very good parts, more so in the second half, and my interest was held despite the eye-rolling lapses in logic, but overall, this story fell way short of its potential.

Lady Annalise wanted to marry a prince who would carry her so her gold slippers would not get dirty. What she got was Blake now the Earl of Payne. Blake father told him you don't show any affection for your wife, she's just duty. Blake wanted to be like his father.Blake was kidnapped and tortured, he was missing eighteen months. Annalise received his signet ring and note saying he was dead.The Duke of Kensington was marrying Annalise to protect her. Blake shows up just as it was announced, he calls her name and passed out.Blake wants her to give him another chance, two months. He refused to tell her the details of what happened. She wants to know, and feels he is being selfish. Blake can't sleep with the nightmare, and he still wants to find them. Annalise still wants to leave, he told her alright.

Such an enjoyable read written beautifully.The characters are exciting and keep you interested to the end of this lovely story .Written with passion and care for the readers enjoyment .A lovely story to the end .

Good read with lot of mystery and intrigue. Both main characters have issues that need resolving before they can have a HEA ending. He especially needs to learn not be selfish and trust plus talk to his wife so she can understand the trauma he has been through. They both struggle and at the end when her life is in danger, they realize that they need and have to trust each other. The title doesn't really suit the storyline.

About to wed for the second time, Annalise is shocked when her missing husband turns up. Married two months, she had been disappointed by him, then he disappeared. Returned, Blake says he's changed, but can she trust him?An interesting variant on the usual Regency romance, with some convincing scenes of discord. I was truly interested in the outcome.

Supposedly set in the 18th century, this book is full of modern patterns of speech & concepts. I you like your historicals to have some feel for the period they are set in, avoid this book. It’s also a cliffhanger, annoyingly.

Wonderful period romance. With danger and intrigue thrown in. Annalise is a strong woman for the 18th century and Blake is the romantic but foolish husband who longs for everything to be the same as before his capture. Unfortunately things must change for them to stay together.