Wicked All Day--REVIEW

Well I finally finished reading Wicked All day by Liz Carlyle!! You can read my original 'In My Mailbox' post about it here.

Overview: Zoë is a young girl, early 20s, who is soon to be deemed unmarriagable by society. She has been through 5 seasons, and has yet to find a suitor who satisfies her. Her father threatens that if she doesn't find a husband soon, he will banish her to their estate in Scotland.. She is terrified of this, and her reason is always because she doesn't want to live with the sheep. :) The few suitors that she semi-likes, she doesn't want to marry because of their family. You see, Zoë is a 'bastard' child, her father impregnanted a young opera singer, then paid her off so he could keep the child. Well-to-do families in society look down on Zoë for not having 'pure blood'.
One night at a party, her childhood friend's brother (Lord Stuart Mercer) rescues her from a soon-to-be bad situation involving another man. Then her father tells her that she needs to marry Sir Edgar Haverfield, who has been after her for awhile, but Zoë knows that is mother looks down on her, so she refuses. Her father, Rannoch, threatens Scotland again, which leaves her very upset. She runs to the arms of her friend Robin (Mercer's younger brother), and they get caught by Mercer in a sexual embrace. For fear of Zoë being ruined, Robin agrees to marry her, even though he is in love with his mistress.
Zoë and her family go to stay at Mercer's family estate, Greythorpe, for awhile until the wedding plans are finalized. During this time, Robin is very cold, going to the brothel every night, and sleeping his days away. Zoë knows that she broke his heart, by keeping him from marrying his mistress. Meanwhile, Zoë and Mercer keep having sexual encounters, and realizing they are in love. Then tragedy strikes...

My Review: While this book took me awhile to get into, I gave it 4 of 5 stars. I felt sorry for Zoë because throughout the book, she is paying for the sins of her doting father because most people look down on her, and deem her unfit for marriage. She is always worried about being 'wicked' and being sent away to Scotland. While her & Robin never actually had sex, it was seen as they did, and they would be caught in a loveless marriage, ruining their friendship. The book was confusing at times, because there were lots of people mentioned, and at different points they were referred to as either their first or last name (maybe I should start writing all the names down!). Overall, it was a good book. The sex scenes weren't too graphic, but just enough to let you know the feelings. I did think it ended kind of abruptly, because I would have liked to know what they family thought of the new arrangement.