Between the Devil and Desire by Lorraine Heath

Jack Dodger may be my fav character in this series inspired by the Charles Dickens book Oliver Twist. Throughout this book I kept thinking of the song “As Long As He Needs Me” from the musical Oliver. At the beginning of the book, you can sympathize with Olivia – her husband died and this rake is listed in the will as guardian of her young son and both of them have to live in the same house. Jack first comes off as very obnoxious and needles Olivia mercilessly and so I thought I would hate him. After reading more about both of them and seeing how Jack treats her son as well as his friends, you can’t help but fall for him. Olivia starts to be nicer to him once she sees how well he treats her son, which in turn causes him to soften toward her. The chemistry was electric I thought. Very good story.