They call him many names but Angelic isn’t one of them...
Sebastian Ballister, the notorious Marquess of Dain, is big, bad, and dangerous to know. No respectable woman would have anything to do with the “Bane and Blight of the Ballisters”--and he wants nothing to do with respectable women. He’s determined to continue doing what he does best--sin and sin again--and all that’s going swimmingly, thank you...until the day a shop door opens and she walks in.

She’s too intelligent to fall for the worst man in the world...
Jessica Trent is a determined young woman, and she’s going to drag her imbecile brother off the road to ruin, no matter what it takes. If saving him--and with him, her family and future--means taking on the devil himself, she won’t back down. The trouble is, the devil in question is so shockingly irresistible, and the person who needs the most saving is--herself!

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Product Description

They call him many names, but Angelic isn't one of them . . .

Sebastian Ballister, the notorious Marquess of Dain, is big, bad, and dangerous to know. No respectable woman would have anything to do with the "Bane and Blight of the Ballisters"—and he wants nothing to do with respectable women. He's determined to continue doing what he does best—sin and sin again—and all that's going swimmingly, thank you . . . until the day a shop door opens and she walks in.

She's too intelligent to fall for the worst man in the world . . .

Jessica Trent is a determined young woman, and she's going to drag her imbecile brother off the road to ruin, no matter what it takes. If saving him—and with him, her family and future—means taking on the devil himself, she won't back down. The trouble is, the devil in question is so shockingly irresistible, and the person who needs the most saving is—herself!

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #11584 in Books
• Published on: 1995-03-30
• Released on: 1995-01-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 384 pages

Review
"One of the great voices in romance" -- --Melinda Helfer, Romantic Times

"Poignant, beautifully written...and scorchingly sensual." -- --Mary Jo Putney, author of Dancing in The Windhew

About the Author

Loretta Chase holds a B.A. from Clark University, where she majored in English and minored unofficially in visual art. Her past lives include clerical, administrative, and part-time teaching at Clark and a Dickensian six-month experience as a meter maid. In the course of moonlighting as a corporate video scriptwriter, she fell under the spell of a producer who lured her into writing novels . . . and marrying him. The union has resulted in more than a dozen books and a number of awards, including the Romance Writers of America's RITA^® Award.

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Customer Reviews

A definite anti-hero
I have seen this book recommended many times. At first I was reluctant because Sebastian, Marquess Dain is not your typical hero. He was an unattractive child and thusly emotional damaged and insecure. He protected himself by outwardly rude and callous behavior, and by carefully protecting his nasty reputation.

The heroine Jessica Trent has come to get her brother out of the clutches of the dissoulute Marquess Dain before he completely ruins him. She finds him instantly attractive and fascinating. Considering she is so beautiful the Marquess Dain finds this unbelievable. She also is one of few people daring enough to stand up to the Marquess. This makes her even more attractive and intriguing to the Marquess. Try though he might he can't seem to stay away, even though he knows she is nothing but trouble for him. The Marquess obviously doubts Miss Trent's motivations where he is concerned.

The first part of this book held me absolutely captivated. Dain may be awful but you just wanted to mend his tortured soul. It was also a lot of fun to watch him and Jessica spar with each other and fight their growing attraction.

The second half lost steam for me. I began to dislike Dain and lose sympathy for him. I began to wonder myself what Jessica found worth fighting for. At the end the Marquess has a quick and all encompassing reformation.

I wish the plot had followed Jessica's efforts to get Dain to leave her brother alone more thoroughly. I also wish that Dain had transformed more slowly under Jessica's love. But overall the book was very enjoyable and I have no doubt I will read this one again.

Did I read the same book as other reviewers?
I got this book from the library based on the smashing reviews here. .my copy of the book was so dog-eared and marked I imagined women poring over this again and again.
I will admit to liking our hero,dain,although with a sobriquet such as ` lord of scoundrels' you would expect to see at least some of his conquesting and not simply hear about it by reference. At least I felt he was a well fleshed out (no pun intended) character. I couldn't feel the same way about our heroine at any point during this book. Why was she letting her brother manipulate her so badly? She certainly wasn't helping him to grow up out of his childish behaviour. Jessica does score brownie points in her taking dain's son under her wing but then again so does he. All in all I was not thrilled with this beauty & the beast plot,although I do think dain is a well thought out& interesting alpha male character

Refreshing!
It has been a while since I read a historical romance and truly loved it. So many books in this genre are alike and once you've read a couple of them, they tend to become all the same. This one really stood out and restored my fate that great books are still out there.

I fell in love with the heroine after just a couple of pages. What set her aside from other characters was that she was down to earth and completely at ease with her sexuality and mankind's basic instincts. You could argue that this kind of personality does not seem to fit in with the period of time, but frankly it didn't bother me in the least and I would like to believe that women like her have excisted throughout time.

I also liked the character of Dane. He's intelligent, wicked and powerfull and has a thouch of violence about him that I personaly find attractive. I do feel I have to mention that I was a bit let down about his character throughout the book. In the first part, I believed in his intelligence and felt that his personality was fully formed. Later on, he became more shallow and the focus was more on his demons from the past.

Loretta Chase has a magnificent writing style which really is something I've learned to appreciate since there is so much garbage out there. After reading the book only once, many sentences were permenantely imprinted in my brain which to me is a sign of great writership.

The Italian frases were not really for me but they were kept at a minimum so I can live with that. As I mentioned before, I also felt that the book - especially regarding the character of Dane- started out strong but lost a bit of its stength in later parts. However, I'll definitly be reading this one again and can recommend it to readers who enjoy romances that aren't coated in sugar.