Review The Year of Living Scandalously by Julia London

The Year of Living Scandalously (The Secrets of Hadley Green #1)
Author Julia London
Mass paperback 432pgs
Histroical romance
Author website

In 1792, the village of Hadley Green executed a man for stealing the Countess of Ashwood’s historic jewels. Fifteen years later, questions still linger. Was it a crime of greed—or of passion?

When Declan O’Connor, Earl of Donnelly, arrives at Hadley Green to meet with Lily Boudine, the new countess of Ashwood, he knows instantly that the lovely woman who welcomes him is not who she pretends to be. In an attempt to avoid an unwanted marriage, Keira Hannigan has assumed her cousin’s identity and is staying at the estate while Lily is abroad. When Declan threatens to expose her, Keira convinces him to guard her secret, then enlists him in her investigation of the missing jewels, for she now believes an innocent man was hanged.

Unable to deny the beautiful, exasperating Keira—or their simmering passion—Declan reluctantly agrees. But neither is prepared for the dangerous stranger who threatens to reveal Keira’s lies...and Declan knows he must protect Keira at all costs, for she is the woman who now owns his heart.

 My review
Rating-

Sexual-

A scandalously good mystery with an added scandal adventure, who can resist a great scandal, not me;) I enjoyed the story, but it did tend to be slow along with the romance. The last chapter left me saying “I freaking want the next book NOW!!” This is not a sexual tension hot romance, the romance builds as you read actually these two don’t really get along well until past the middle of the book. I liked the surprises and the setting, I think it a good start to a series.
Keria swaps places with Lily. So Lily the now countess goes to Italy and Keria goes and plays Countess, but when she gets to the estate she knows she has really made a mistake. She now has to much on her plate to take care of. For one its very hard to keep pretending to be Lily then when she finds Declan there it makes it worse because he knows she is not Lily. She ask him for help to find out who really sold the jewels, he denies her at first, then he caves and helps. The more Declan helps with the investigation the more he ends up getting involved with Keria. Its made it more of an interesting read to see how deep Keria gets into things before Lily shows up.
I liked Keria, but Declan not so much his is typical man that doesn’t want to be tied down in anyway, so you know he gets some side sex, at least these two are not in a relationship when his is with the other lady . He’s not helpful at first and he does everything to turn her away. I also had a problem with the way the h/h was just cut off at the end, they get a HEA but it was just to short.