HER ADVENTURES IN TEMPTATION

A lady mathematician conducts a scandalous experiment.

It’s not Miss Myrtle Allen’s fault that she’s not married yet. She’s had at least 27 proposals, but none of those men understand Babbage’s Table of Logarithms or are likely to tolerate her supposedly “difficult to deal with” self. Her brother the Viscount is on the verge of giving her an ultimatum when an opportunity presents itself in the form of Mr. Simeon Jones, an artist with a scandalous reputation who needs to make a sudden departure from her family’s country house. She will abscond with him to London in order to prove that she can support herself using her prodigious math skills; Simeon agrees to take the unusual woman with him mainly because she offers to pay and he’s desperate for funds, but also because he’s a softie. Despite experiencing both attraction and opportunity on their illicit trip, it’s not until he drops her at her family’s London home that she dares to ask for a kiss. And when Myrtle opens the front door, she finds that her time in London is about to unfold a bit differently than expected, and she’ll need to call on her only friend in the city for help: Simeon. The third book in Frampton’s School for Scoundrels series features yet another hero who’s got a lot to prove alongside a heroine who doesn’t quite fit in with society and doesn’t care to, both of which Frampton continues to write well. The plot is a bit contrived, but that’s easy to overlook thanks to the refreshing heroine, who shines throughout, especially in several skillfully developed scenes featuring the inexperienced Myrtle unabashedly enjoying the benefits of learning about sex from a rake. As the Bastard Five make only brief appearances in this volume, it can easily be read as a stand-alone, but the book will be enjoyable for fans of the series as well.

A strong historical romance for fans of bluestocking love stories.