Marriage most scandalous by Johanna Lindsey

Lady Margaret Landor first met Sebastian Townshend as a child, when he caught her peeking into her older sister's engagement ball. Tall, dashing, and charming, Sebastian was one of the most sought-after bachelors in Kent and cut a romantic figure she would not soon forget. Never did she dream that one day she would be living at his family's magnificent estate with Sebastian's father, the eighth Earl of Edgewood, as her guardian--while Sebastian is banished from his family due to the tragic results of a duel.

When life at Edgewood takes a sinister turn with the earl suffering a suspicious number of life-threatening accidents, Margaret wonders if Sebastian's younger brother and his wife have grown impatient to inherit the earldom. Setting out to find the one man she believes can set the situation to rights, she discovers that Sebastian Townshend has forged a new identity for himself on the continent.

Now known as The Raven, a deadly mercenary, notorious for accomplishing any mission no matter how seemingly impossible, he has vowed never to return to England. Not until Margaret meets his outrageous monetary demands does Sebastian agree to return home, reluctantly posing as her husband in order to facilitate his return to society. When he learns she cannot afford to pay his fee, he suggests a scandalous trade.

As Margaret and Sebastian work to uncover the intrigue at his father's estate, a fierce passion blooms that neither of them anticipated and neither can resist. But can Margaret persuade Sebastian to abandon the dark path he believes is his fate and claim the life--and love--he deserves?

I enjoyed this one! There were some plot twists, some betrayals, I wasn't feeling when Sebastian ran back and professed his love to Maggie, but that is ok, because I felt that he would have developed that love eventually.

Sebastian starts out this novel by accidentally killing his best friend in a duel. He goes to this duel expecting to die, but Giles hits his arm, and his arm falls and he ends up shooting Giles in the chest. Sebastian's father then disowns him, turns out Giles' father and Sebastian's father are also best friends. Sebastian is also told to never return to England shores, and so he leaves, and doesn't look back. Fast forward 11 years, he has made a name for himself, The Raven, and someone from his past is looking for him.

Maggie is looking to hire The Raven because of his reputation for never failing, and she needs him to find Sebastian. But she walks in only to find they are the same man. Convenient! Well, she wants to hire him for something else now, to investigate some accidents back home, and Sebastian puts up a fight, but she ends up tricking him into it. Kind of. It was all very amusing. The rest of the book is them figuring out what is happening back home, and finding out that how that duel happened in the first place.

There was a questionable scene, where Sebastian wants Maggie to say “yes” but she says “no”, however he doesn't stop. This kind of bothered me a little bit, but Lindsey did make it a point to write in Maggie's inner monologue that she did mean “yes” and she does say yes moments later, but I just want to warn anyone who has any issues with that kind of thing.

This was my first book by this author and I ended up really enjoying it. Sebastian Townshend (our hero) has been banished from his family. In the synopsis it says he is a deadly mercenary. I didn't really consider him to be deadly at all. Yes he is a brooding hero with an attitude and he knows how to get what he wants but he wasn't deadly. Also he was very swoony. Margaret is a great heroine. She is headstrong and I loved the banter between her and Sebastian and how she never shied away from telling Sebastian just what she thought even though he intimidated her. There was one scene that kind of irked me though. This might be a little spoilery so if you don't want to be spoiled skip this. There was a moment when Maggie was pretending to be asleep when he came into the room and he touched her. She was awake and eventually made it known that she was awake and had told him no but we get her inner dialogue and she was saying she actually really wanted him to do what he was doing. I was torn because she said no but she actually wanted it and it just kind of bothered me a little. There were a couple of reveals toward the end of the book. One of them I didn't see coming at all but the other one I did. Overall I really enjoyed this book and look forward to reading more by this author.