Books › A Promise to Dishonour
A Promise to Dishonour
288 pages
A classic, high-stakes battle of wits where a protective sister strikes a scandalous bargain with a notorious rake.
What it feels like
Stepping into this novel feels like opening a time capsule of classic category romance, where the drama is high, the bargains are scandalous, and the emotional tension crackles from the very first page. The narrative moves at a brisk, dialogue-heavy pace, thrusting the reader straight into a fraught game of cat-and-mouse between a fiercely protective heroine and a dangerously arrogant hero. The mood is a delicious blend of simmering hostility and inevitable attraction, wrapped in the cozy, nostalgic atmosphere of vintage romantic tropes. It is a story built on the thrill of forced proximity and the timeless appeal of taming a rake. Readers who devour old-school Harlequin novels will revel in the earnest melodrama, the sharp banter, and the deeply satisfying, swoony surrender that defines the genre.
- Mood
- tense
- swoony
- dramatic
- Tone
- melodramatic
- earnest
- arch
- romantic
- Pace
- brisk
- Themes
- taming the rake · forced proximity · family loyalty · enemies to lovers · high-stakes bargains
- The writing
- Dialogue-driven and emotionally emphatic, leaning into the heightened drama of classic category romance.
- The arc
- The protagonist moves from fierce, protective hostility to reluctant fascination, culminating in a swoony romantic surrender.
- Who it's for
- Readers who crave the nostalgic, trope-heavy drama of vintage Mills & Boon romances featuring innocent heroines and arrogant rakes.
Content notes
- coercion/blackmail trope
- threatened infidelity
- dated gender dynamics
About the book
Once a rake -- always a rake?
If only Ashlie's brother hadn't accepted work so far away from London. Perhaps then his wife wouldn't have fallen for her rakish boss and Ashlie wouldn't have had to interfere...
"You drive a hard bargain," Chase Marriner conceded the day Ashlie confronted him about the illicit weekends the lovers had planned. "In exchange for your spending the time away with me, I'll guarantee Lynette remains my employee and nothing more."
Now Ashlie had only to arrange things so that Chase would honor his side of the bargain -- while she dishonored hers!
Description from Open Library.
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