4/5

I am such a sucker for historical romance. Lords, ladies, and waltzing are all things I can't get enough of. I have it bad, and I mean bad. The downside? So many Regency era romance novels have the same flippin' plot.

It goes as follows:

 Rake sees girl. Girl hates Rake. Rake courts her and wins her over. Rake suddenly realizes he loves the girl (after not being willing to admit to himself the entire novel) when he is getting ready to lose her or she is facing death. blah, blah, blah... Happily ever after with an exit bed scene. 

Now, this isn't necessarily a bad thing. I still devour them even when I know what is going to happened throughout the entire book within the first chapter. I am always so excited to find a story line that has even a bit of originality to it, and Twice as Wicked has just that. 

We have the vengeful twin sister who sets out to hurt the man who ultimately lead her sister to her death. She finds our dear little Nate, and he isn't who she thought she was looking for. 

Nate is the complete opposite of the typical rake. He is shy and humble. He is clueless with it comes to flirting up the girls, and doesn't know what to do with them even he caught them. He has a small problem of someone who repeatedly is trying for his death, but he takes it in stride and goes with the flow so to speak . 

Alice is a firecracker. She has lost two people in two years and her world flipped on it's head. She is hardheaded, intelligent, and daring. I really like her and I found her to have actual depth to her character. 

***Spoiler - Skip next paragraph***

You've been warned.

Don't hate me if you read it. 

It will be all on you!

Hey you! There is a spoiler below. A YUGE spoiler. 

Ok, well welcome to my random spoiler. I just realized - truly just realized as I was writing about Alice - that we never actually found out who was trying to kill Nate. Huh. I enjoyed the novel enough it didn't even grace my mind, but now it's going to drive me nuts. Hopefully, that little, well huge, admission was intentional. Perhaps, it will carry on to the next in the series? I am going to give it the benefit of the doubt thought that it is, and will end up discovering the truth in the end. The truth always prevails... right?

***Safe zone starts here***

I really did love Twice as Wicked. I look forward to checking out other novels of Elizabeth Bright's and seeing if the stories continue to be different then the expected.  

Mary Balogh
Julia Quinn
historical romance in general