WEDDED IN SIN – Jade Lee
Bridal Favors Series , Book 2
Berkley Sensation
ISBN: 978-0-425-25103-4
August 2012
Historical Romance

London, England; 19th Century

Welcome to A Lady's Favor!  What's your pleasure?  We offer the finest in ladies clothing and accoutrement, as well as shoes of the like you've never seen before!  Guaranteed, none of the other London shops' wares will ever compare to ours.

Penny Shoemaker is desperate.  Now that she has lost her home, where will she live in order to create fine shoes for A Lady's Favor?  It's a small miracle that she has a job doing what she loves, but having a roof over her and her nine month old brother's heads is necessary too.  But the men who are kicking her out cite that the home which had been left to her by her deceased parents has been sold by one Thomas Shoemaker.

Penny knows she's been had since her infant brother, Tommy, is unable to fully carry on an adult conversation, let alone sell their home.  The leader of the pack, Cordwain, a less-than-savory hack of a shoemaker, fairly gloats at Penny as he assists in her removal from the home.  But Penny knows that it isn't the house that Cordwain wants, but the foot forms from which she crafts her shoes.  It's a good thing that she was able to grab them before being bodily tossed out on the street.

Samuel Morrison is in Town for the season and prepared to be bored senseless when he encounters a woman being tossed from her home. He cannot ignore the injustice caused to her and the child as she struggles against the men evicting her.  Eviction is a polite word for the brutal argument that led to her escape with a bag of body parts.  Before Samuel knows it, he's caught up in helping Penny, and he vows to see justice served for Penny and Tommy Shoemaker.

WEDDED IN SIN takes place two weeks after WEDDED IN SCANDAL—(Helene Talbott and Robert Percy), the Bridal Favors series' first book—ends.  As the owner and operator of A Lady's Favor, Helene is off enjoying her honeymoon with Robert.  She's left the shop in the capable hands of her mother, Mrs. Appleton, and Wendy Dew, the shop's co-owner.  As the shoemaker for the shop, Penny is a bit of an odd duck as a lady making shoes is almost unheard, but her talent cannot be ignored.  Her predicament is temporarily fixed when her bosses allow Penny to stay above the shop.  Penny, however, still enlists Samuel's help in reclaiming her home and together they work towards that end.  From their tenuous beginning, a deeper relationship begins and Samuel learns that he's more than just a younger son with nothing to do.

Jade Lee warmly invites readers to A Lady's Favor again in WEDDED IN SCANDAL. It's a welcome respite to warm up those cold nights!

Amy Cunningham