This was a recommendation. It was okay. The plot is basically Cruel Intentions or Dangerous Liaisons - but then the mom makes a deal and everything goes even worse for Juliana.

There's a lot of bad: The characters never felt real - especially the hero "Sin" Sinclair, who was a one dimensional "rake" until he suddenly is in love with Juliana and wants to get married. (But it's not like Juliana had any character development either.) The dialogue wasn't very good - very "fake antiquated" sounding and without any of the subtleness and banter I've come to love in historical romances. A lot of it was just anachronistic - where are the chaperones? Everyone just accepts that Juliana was sleeping with the hero? Wouldn't sending Juliana off with the gambler overnight be even worse than people finding out about their family's financial situation?

The book also just skips over the fun part where we normally watch the characters get to know each other and fall in love - all of a sudden it's just weeks later and we're told they've been together many times. I'd forgive all that if the spicy parts were fun but that was kind of lacking too - should have had a couple more scenes.

Still it was a short read and was entertaining enough.