Lord of Scoundrels
by Loretta Chase
The recap
Sebastian Ballister, Marquess of Dain, has worked hard to become the most notorious man in Paris: huge, sardonic and proudly beyond redemption. Jessica Trent has no interest in reforming him. She simply wants her hapless brother back, and Dain has been cheerfully steering the young man toward ruin through the gaming rooms and drinking haunts of the city. Practical, quick-tongued and blessed with a sharp eye for antiques, Jessica decides to fight for Bertie on Dain's own terms, and the marquess, certain that no respectable lady could ever want him, finds he cannot outmaneuver her. What follows is a contest of wits, bargains and badly timed kisses, staged before a society that lives for scandal. Loretta Chase writes banter that crackles, yet beneath the comedy lies a tender portrait of a man who learned in childhood that he was unlovable. The result is a Beauty and the Beast story with real bite, and a heroine who has no intention of being rescued.
Why read it
For anyone who loves sparring leads, laugh-out-loud dialogue and a wounded hero worth the wait, and for readers curious why romance devotees keep naming this the benchmark of the historical genre.
Fun facts
- 01
The novel won the Romance Writers of America's 1996 RITA Award in the short historical category.
- 02
Chase gave Dain a half-English, half-Italian parentage, drawing on her own love of Italian culture, and has described him as a Beast-like outcast and misfit within his own society.
- 03
In a 2005 interview with All About Romance, Chase said she never pictured Dain as classically handsome: his childhood left him too wounded to notice that he had grown into his looks.
- 04
It topped All About Romance's reader poll of the Top 100 romances for years; in 2010 it appeared on more than 40 percent of ballots, and in 2013 it edged out Lisa Kleypas's Devil in Winter by well under a percentage point.
- 05
TIME included it in its 2024 list of the 50 best romance novels to read right now.
