Age Gap Romances are NOT My Thing

 Beyond Scandal and Desire by Lorraine Heath 

I have very mixed feelings about this book because I hate an age gap. He is 31. She is 20. It's icky. But, the surprise twist at the end was good. Not good enough to give this a higher rating, but good enough that I will read more of the series. Mick is a bastard, literally and figuratively. Despite that he has built himself quite a real estate empire, and has taken care of his adopted mother and siblings. All in all he's a good guy. However, he is desperate to be accepted by society and he comes up with a plan to force his father, a Duke, to acknowledge him. His plan is to destroy the heir and he is going to use his betrothed to do so, in addition to gambling debts. However, once he meets Aslyn he starts falling for her and contriving excuses to spend time with her. He finally gets Aslyn into his bed and his brother comes barging in to say that heir finally bet the land that they have been waiting for. Aslyn overhears and starts questing Mick about his motives and their relationship. He comes clean about his parentage and the rest; she is heartbroken. He sends a message to the Duke and when he and the heir show up Mick has shaved his beard and the resemblance is uncanny, but the Duke maintains he has no bastard. Mick says all he wants is the right to call on Aslyn but the Duke refuses (he is her guardian). Still, Mick shows up the next day and while waiting he meets the Duchess. The book begins with the Duke calling a woman his love and then secreting away the baby to the Widow Truelove. He thinks he's giving the baby to an orphanage, but really she kills babies for a price. But she didn't kill Mick because she lost two of her own pregnancies and she thought it was payback for killing the babies, so she doesn't kill him to atone. Anyway, later in the story the Duke says he has been searching for his love ever since. But he doesn't name her. Well, come to find out the woman was his wife, the Duchess. She didn't keep the baby because she was raped and based on when she delivered she thought it belonged to the rapist and not her husband. Then, she saw Mick and realized the truth. The Duke knew it too, that's why he said he had no bastard. Mick is legitimate. And the true heir. However, when he found this out Mick didn't want to be acknowledged anymore; too many questions, too many bad memories to deal with. So, he runs off to his hotel and hides in work. Then, Aslyn and the Duke and Duchess come and stay in his hotel. He continues to avoid them. Finally, Aslyn invites him to tea with her, the Duchess, and his mother. He sprints down to the gardens to find them all getting along. He and Aslyn get married. He grows back his beard to help hide the resemblance to his father, and he builds relationships between his birth family and adopted family. I liked the ending and how nicely it set things up for future books. And, if you ignore the age gap it wasn't bad. I just hope all of the books don't have the age gap theme.