The story of Emily Fairchild and Jordan Willis, Earl of Blackmore is a wonderful romance. Every moment they spend together, from their first kiss in the carriage, to Jordan's declaration of love at the end, was magical, full of sizzling hot chemistry and powerful feeling. Emily Fairchild might seem like your typical prim and proper heroine, but she soon proves she can pull off the seemingly impossible - the collapse of that whore/madonna complex that seems to plague so many romances. The Forbidden Lord would seem to set up and enforce this unfortunate twist on sexuality, for the premise involves Emily being forced into a masquerade by the evil Lord Nesfield, her best friend’s father. He blackmails her into helping him discover the man who tried to elope with his daughter. Emily, who is as pure and innocent as can be, who's the daughter of the rector, who balks at telling the smallest lie, must become "Lady Emma," a vivacious, bold, flirtatious woman who has all of London at her feet. But the distinctions between Emily and Lady Emma soon dissolve as Emily comes to enjoy the freedom of her new role. She is everything that Lady Emma is, and still Emily at the same time. And, best of all, I don't hate Emily - she manages to be virtuous without being sanctimonious. She’s strong, intelligent, kind, and goes after what she wants. This last pertains to Jordon. She learns just how fun it is being (in her own words) “naughty,” no matter how hard she tries to be “good.”

As for Jordon, he’s a powerful personality who is instantly captivated by Emily – their first meeting is such a memorable one. Jordon is so obsessed with Emily he doesn't even realize how hard he’s fallen for her at first. He passes this off as simply a need to expose her deception – he’d met her when she was just a rector’s daughter before the blackmailing disaster and the creation of her alter ego. So part of the fun of The Forbidden Lord is Emily running circles around Jordon as Lady Emma while he hopelessly tries to reconcile the two seemingly incommensurate women –the innocent virgin and the brazen seductress. Sorry if I speak in romantic clichés here, but the best part of the book is how well Jeffries plays with these stereotypes in order to offer the reader something fresh, exciting, and heartfelt. When Jordon finally gets her to admit who she is, Emily still won’t give him her reasons for the charade, but he’s certain she’s doing it against her will. He’s driven crazy by how badly he wants to help and protect Emily, but, because of her deep dark secret, she can’t let him. My only tiny complaint (besides the admittedly far fetched premise of the story – the whole notion of Emily as a spy for Nesfield, who by the way is ridiculously overdone in his evilness) is that the story can get bogged down a bit when it comes to Emily’s repeated resistance to Jordan's efforts to get her secret from her – it provides for a lot of the tension between them, but does tend to run on near the end, at which times Emily strays dangerously into martyrdom territory. But really this didn’t bother me and couldn’t get in the way of a great, entertaining romance. And did I mention this book is *hot*? ( )

I love this author, but the book dragged forever! Boy meets girl, boy kisses girl, boy meets girl again in 2months, boy mistakes girl for naughty scottish girl, girl lays herself at his feet in exchange for his silence, boy is hardheaded as a mule, but they live happily ever after. ( )