Forbidden - Lauren Smith

I will admit that I was a in two minds about reading Forbidden by Lauren Smith. Not because of the topic (more on that shortly) but because, although I love Lauren Smith's writing, when I read one of her novellas, which this is, I am always left wanting more. To make matters even worse, this is the first of three books in a series, not only will I be left wanting more, but there will be more coming, just not for another couple of months.

My plan was to wait until the second and third books in the series were out and then read them all together. But I'd pre-ordered it and once it arrived on my kindle, I'm afraid I couldn't resist.

Kat, is an American student studying at Cambridge as her father has recently moved to London for work and she wants to be near to him. She meets Tristan Kingsley, the future Earl of Pembroke. There is a burning chemistry between them and despite Kat's innocence and inexperience, things get very hot, pretty quickly. 

There is one slight problem, Kat's father has met someone in London, someone who he's fallen for pretty hard and is planning on marrying, someone who happens to be Tristan's mother. I know a lot of people are put off by the idea of a step brother/sister relationship, but I don't think that really counts in this case, they've not been raised together and there is no real connection there, other than the marriage of their parents. So while it might not be everyone's cup of tea, personally I don't think that there's anything really distasteful about this.

What I really enjoyed about this (apart from the steamy, growing romance, which you all know is a bit of a guilty pleasure of mine, at least when well written) is that although this is a novella, being part one of three, there was plenty of room for the story to grow and develop. I enjoyed the growing blossoming between the two and the connection that they seem to instinctively share.

My only slight reservations were that I don't really fully get this fascination that many American authors have with Earls and Dukes and the like. Yes he's got a title, so what?! But that just might be my British working class roots coming through? Tall dark and handsome, yes, that I do get, of course. 

I'm looking forward to part two and three in the series, Seduction and Climax. If only I didn't have to wait...