The Club: A Rouge Regency Romance

good book ,

When Jane St Giles, Lady Sherringham, discovers that her good friend Del has vanished, she knows she has to try to find her. Del's husband has been violent towards her and Jane knows that he forced Del to attend 'The Club', a secret gentlemen's club. So Jane goes there in order to try to find out what may have happened to Del, and bumps into Del's brother, Lord Wickham, who has returned from India. Jane and Wickham were childhood friends but their lives moved in separate ways, with Jane marrying (and then being widowed) and Wickham gaining a reputation as a rake.Jane and Wickham begin to investigate together, both at the Club and elsewhere. They believe Del may have been locked away somewhere but they have few leads. As they uncover the seamy underworld of London together, their childhood friendship rekindles; but there are shocks in store for Jane and she may have to re-evaluate what she knows of Wickham's character.This book was enjoyable in terms of the mystery plot and the variety of settings in London. What didn't work for me were the scenes in the club which felt like they were written almost entirely for the titillation of the reader and didn't serve any real purpose. I liked both Christian (Wickham) and Jane in terms of their characters but I had to suspend belief occasionally in terms of historical accuracy. It was a reasonable read but not something I am likely to turn to again.Originally published for Curled Up With A Good Book © Helen Hancox 2009

Jane goes the to the secret club to find out what happened to her friend Del as she isn't getting any answers from Del's husband and her other friends. But she goes she ends up having to sleep with another man and that man turns out to be Christian her friend's brother she is relieved as she couldn't go through with it. But she is determined to help Christian to find the missing Del even if she has to pretend to be his lover when she quakes with fear. Her determination helps her overcome it somewhat but she is still disgusted by what she sees. As they delve into the going ons at the club and the attendees, Jane slowly overcomes her fears as Christian shows her a real gentleman and the pleasures that a woman can receive.Christian follows Jane to find out what she knows about his sister's disappearance and is intrigued when he finds her entering the club. He decides to become her lover for the night and doesn't understand why she is skittish and can't go through with the plans. He tries to keep her out of the investigation but when she refuses to leave it to him he realises that he needs to keep her close to keep her safe. He is determined to find Del and make sure she is safe and away from her husband who he thinks is abusing her. As he spends more time with Jane he slowly realises what she must have gone through with her late husband as she is afraid of what is going on at the club in front of her and doesn't response to Christian's kisses like a pleasured woman would do.As Jane and Christian continue to look into Del's disappearance they start to uncover a sinister and dark side of the club and its members. Soon they are both fighting for their own survival as well as Del's.Well this book was full of sin, intrigue, fear and finally love and passion, but it makes it stand out amongst the other historical's. As soon as I started this book I was wondering where it was going to go and it kept me hooked all the way through and really enjoyed reading it.

Lady Jane Sherringham and Lord Christian Wickham are investigating the disappearance of his sister Del, who frequented The Club of the title with her husband. The Club is a sex club with the most unsexy things happening within it's walls and Jane and Christian have few leads to go on and so keep returning to the Club to generally harass their acquaintances and Club workers about what might have happened to Del.I have to admit that I normally keep going with books no matter how bad they are but this book was SO dire that I gave up. I found Jane very annoying and I simply didn't care about the rest of the characters and certainly there was none of the sexual energy that Ms Page has created in her other books. I have loved her other books so was expecting much more from this.