THE TRUTH COULD RUIN HERIn Manda Collins’s Why Lords Lose Their Hearts, Perdita, the widowed Duchess of Ormonde, keeps a dangerous secret—the truth of how her brutish husband died. But a mysterious avenger seems to know it, too, and when anonymous threats turn into public attacks, there’s only one friend she can turn to for help—her husband’s former secretary, Lord Archer Lisle. The man who witnessed her every heartache. The kind of man whose love she can only dream of …WILL HIS LOVE SAVE HER?The youngest of the Duke of Pemberton’s five sons, Lord Archer Lisle is used to waiting his turn. For years, he could only stand by, seething, as Perdita suffered at the hands of her husband, but now she’s under threat from another source—one who will stop at nothing to make her pay for the late duke’s death. But the good-natured Archer can be dangerous when crossed—and he’ll do anything to keep the woman he’s adored for so long safe in his arms…
Series: Wicked Widows #3
Release Date: July 29, 2014
Publisher: St. Martin’s
Source: Manic Readers
Reviewer: Michelle
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Reviewer’s Thoughts
Why Lords Lose Their Hearts” is the third book in Manda Collins’ Wicked Widows series. I have not read the previous books. However, I was easily able to understand the storyline. The author did an excellent job of weaving into the storyline information from the previous books that provided insight into the characters. This helped me to make meaning of the interactions between characters and didn’t overwhelm me with knowledge that had no impact on the current storyline. The information provided actually made me want to go out and buy those previous books because the author did such an exceptional job of sharing snippets of their stories.
This is the story of Perdita, widowed Duchess of Ormond and her admirer, Lord Archer Lisle. Perdita’s deceased husband was not loving, kind, and tender. He was the exact opposite and abused her. I wanted to read the story, but I was afraid that the author was going to be heavy handed with the abuse. Fortunately, the author was able to handle this serious topic of domestic abuse by weaving in equal parts suspense and humor. Yes…humor. Some of the lines were so funny that I actually laughed out loud. Thank goodness it was the early hours of the morning so no one was up to hear me. This is one of my favorites. Perdita and Archer are caught kissing. He says he was simply comforting her. His friends ask…with your tongue? Perdita also has a friend, Georgiana and a sister, Isabelle to add to the humor. You have to read it to find out which one is the pistol packing mama…lol.
Lord Archer Lisle has been in love with Perdita from afar. He has watched her suffer through the awful marriage to Gervase, her former husband. He is determined to be her protector and allow no further harm to come to her. When she is attacked while riding and receives threating letters Lord Archer becomes her bodyguard and bedmate. The two of them set out to discover who is trying to harm her. Along the journey Perdita will need to overcome her distrust of herself and be courageous enough to allow herself to be happy. The author also added Lord Archer’s brothers which added more humor and depth to the story. I hope she will write their stories next.
The combination of romance, suspense, and humor makes this book a winner. I stayed up all night to finish the book…knowing I had work the following day. I had to find out who was behind the attempts on Perdita’s life. The ride to get to the answer was a series of twists and turns. Just when I thought I knew the identity of the killer another twist would pop up. And just when I thought it was all over the author threw in another twist. My mouth literally dropped open. I loved the book, and I will definitely read more of her work.
