Pride & Passion by Charlotte Featherstone

This is Book 2 of the Brethren Guardian series and features Adrian, the Duke of Sussex and Lucy, the daughter of the Marquess of Stonebrook.

Lucy is engaged to Adrian and she hates it.  She hates what he represents: the same cold, heartless society who robbed her of her parents and her childhood.  But she knows her duty.

Adrian has loved Lucy forever but he can't seem to compete with the ghosts in Lucy's past.  First, there is the young boy, Gabriel, who was Lucy's first friend -- and there is Thomas, Lucy's first lover.

He has done everything to make Lucy see him, the man -- and not the title.  But it always seems to have the opposite effect on Lucy and drives her further and further away.

And there is the business of the Brethren Guardians -- Adrian and his fellow Brethren seek to unmask the people behind the House of Orpheus.  Lucy is an unknowing pawn in the dangerous game between the Brethren and the House of Orpheus and Adrian wants to keep her safe.

This is a long book and a Featherstone focused too heavily on the enmity between Lucy and Adrian and on the House of Orpheus for most of the book.

The story of Lucy and Adrian actually improves at Chapter 20 -- when they finally decide to talk to each other not as Lord and Lady -- but as Lucy and Adrian.  And the blossoming of their relationship is a beautiful thing to read about.

I really like Adrian.  I could sympathize with him and I love that he fell in love with Lucy first.

Lucy struck me as a bit too spoiled.  Granted she didn't have the happiest of childhoods (her parents ignored her) -- I didn't like that she kept using her childhood as an excuse to behave terribly now that she's grown up.

I did love that she made her own clothes (and also Isabella's) -- that was an interesting, albeit unexplored, aspect of her personality.

This was an improvement on the first book.  The tone is much better (not as overwrought) --

Looking forward to reading the 3rd book.