Reckless

Written by Hannah Howell

Narrated by Ashford MacNab

Heir to the clan MacFarlane, Ailis was a prize to be bartered by her calculating father, and her wedding to a man she despised seemed inevitable—until she is abducted by her clan's worst enemy, Alexander MaDubh, a brutally handsome laird with ice in his eyes and hot blood in his veins.



Alexander had come riding into Leargan to claim the three children born of a forbidden love between his brother and lovely Ailis's sister. Now, with Ailis herself as his pawn, he can strike at the enemy whose treachery robbed his clan of so much. Her beauty and her fierce temper stir his blood, and vengeance has never been so sinfully sweet. But will a passion they cannot deny be enough to ease the pain and torment of the past?



Contains mature themes.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tantor Media, Inc
• Release date: Nov 30, 2021
• ISBN: 9781666172706

Hannah Howell

Hannah Howell is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of acclaimed historical romances. Howell, twice awarded the Golden Leaf Award, has been a Romance Writers of America RITA Award Finalist, received RT Book Reviews' Career Achievement Award for Historical Storyteller of the Year, and has had her books on Amazon's Top 10 Romances of the Year list. She lives in West Newbury, Massachusetts with her family. Visit her website at hannahhowell.com.

Reviews for Reckless

[Chris · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

What a story of great adventures and heartaches and learning to forgive and receive love and giving love.

[UchennaEzeh · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Alexander! Very entertaining. Sad to see the changes losing his daughter as well as his wife's betrayal wrought in him. Aelis was a good bride for him

[jorgeousjotts · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

I very rarely give single star ratings, but I quickly went from unimpressed to a continual, active dislike. lol. I've enjoyed some previous books from this author decently, but this was honestly kind of miserable to get through. I was just already far enough in by the time I gave up hope of things turning around that I stubbornly stuck it out anyway.
The heroine lies to everyone, including herself, absolutely constantly! And the hero is a manipulative ass and hardly shows a desirable trait throughout the entire book. And they're both kind of dim-witted. It was a lot. Additionally, the heroine was incredibly naive, which I don't always hold against a character, but she was also overly self assured and reckless, and, combined with the hero's "worldly" rakishness, it created a sketchy predator/prey dynamic. She's attracted to his looks, and he's intrigued by her denied interest, and even by the end they hardly know any more of each other than that! 90% of the book is just the two of them in a battle of wills, broken up with some seduction, (some of which is 'forced seduction' by the way. There are definite consent issues, fair warning). The plot is a sizeable stretch, there's a lack of almost anything romantic (with the two of them never just in accord with each other or admiring something beyond appearance or sexual skill, until the very end of the book), and there's an obvious and cheap villain thrown in. The seduction overall felt a bit icky to me with her constantly spouting how much she loathed him and sometimes making threats or actually struggling, while he felt entitled to her body and ruining her just because it would amuse him to have her and because he could. (I also dislike in general when heroines put up a fight when inside they secretly want things to continue as well. The very notion seems like it's trying to validate rapists or something. 'She said "no. stop." but I knew better than her what she really wanted!' Ew).

And side note, this didn't contribute to my rating, but was still noteable. I'm not usually a stickler for anachronisms, they're usually just referencing a play a decade before it was written or something and pretty harmless, but in this book an invalid teases that he's not considering suicide yet by saying he's not ready to 'stick his fork in the wall'. Which is a reference to purposeful electrocution by sticking metal into an electrical wall outlet, something which wouldn't be possible because electrical homes wouldn't exist for another 100 years. So unless they're time travelers it would be a preposterous thing to say with no understood meaning of any kind. This is not a new author self publishing all on their own, she's been writing historicals for 50 years and must have a team of people reading these before they go to print. I'm surprised none of them thought to question this.

[n.w.moors-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I read this book before though I never marked it on Goodreads. I'm on a historical romance binge and grabbed a copy of this to read.
Reading parts of this book made me uncomfortable, though in terms of the setting there was nothing inappropriate. It's based on the Hellfire Club which was an 18th-century scene of depravities enjoyed by nobles. The story is the trope of a rake who falls for the bluestocking who only intends to view the goings-on for 'scientific research' purpose, intending to remain a spinster virgin. The villain is suitably villainous, the hero is heroic, and the heroine is spunky. There's a nice secondary romance as a counterpoint. I think the book manages to surpass its tropes and ends up as a good romance.

[ladywesley · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

What can I say about a book where I enjoyed the secondary romance (between the courtesan and the parson) better than the lead?

[wyvernfriend · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I liked it but it just didn't quite convince me of the growing love rather than lust that the two main characters had for each other. The two were well drawn, Charlotte Spenser, considered a spinster by all, who fancied Adrian Rohan from afar, who is brought to a decadent orgy by her best friend, with whom she lives and ends up having a couple of days of lustful sex with Adrian.
Adrian who is a rake and convinced that there will be no settling down for him. Fancied her but never thought that he would be able to satisfy himself with her until opportunity presented itself.

I must admit that I was more interested and more convinced by Lina and Simon's romance.

Readable, interesting but didn't wow me.

[capnrandm · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

While "Reckless" was unable to unseat "Ruthless" as my favorite Anne Stuart, it contained more of the technical brilliance and gothic entertainment I have come to expect from this author. Normally I would object to a series jumping generations and cheating me out of details about my old, familiar favorites, but the characters introduced in "Ruthless" were able to win my attention away from their predecessors. Charlotte and Adrian are compelling protagonists that, once again, take familiar romance novel tropes to a whole new level. There was one teapot hurling scene that will forever be one of my favorites, and finishing "Reckless" has made me anxious to move on to "Breathless."

[kaetrin_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Reckless (book 2 - due out in August) is different and I wondered if I should wait a while before I read it and maybe I should have. It is a different book, about Rohan and Elinor's son, Adrian and it is set in England in 1804. Adrian isn't quite a wicked or delicious as Rohan - whereas most of my enjoyment of Ruthless came from Rohan, Reckless was enjoyable in an entirely different way and I 'shared' my love with both protagonists. The dialogue between Charlotte and Adrian was delightful, sharp, biting and double edged. I liked that it wasn't the same book with different leads and a different name. I liked that it took place over a shorter time frame. Also, because Adrian wasn't quite as wicked as Rohan had been, I didn't have any trouble with the the ending at all so it was a more consistent read for me in that respect. (But I still liked Rohan better) There is a secondary romance in Reckless that could have been a book in itself and I was a bit disapointed not to have more of it. I was really interested in Evangelina and Simon's story. Also, there were a couple of questions I had about how the family got back to England and a new title that the original Rohan had picked up that didn't seem to be answered and which bothered me a little - because I'm like that. I gave Reckless a B . Really good, but not quite as good at Ruthless.