"Breathless" by Anne Stuart

Miranda Rohan is 23 and lives in her own house in London after being shunned by the ton for being kidnapped and compromised two years previous.  Lucien de Malheur, a.k.a., Scorpion, is out for revenge against Miranda's family, and he uses her to achieve it.

I was very disappointed in this book.  I'd read "Ruthless," the story of Miranda's grandparents, and really enjoyed it, but this had little joy in it.  For one thing, Miranda is raped by her kidnapper yet the author never calls it that since Miranda chose not to fight him.  She doesn't seem to have any psychological trauma from it, which I found unbelievable.  Secondly, Lucien is not a likable character even when the author tries to redeem him at the end.  I found him insulting and abusive to Miranda, who, of course, falls in love with him.  All he cares about is revenge.  The secondary story with her best friend, Jane, and Jacob Donnelly, the King of Thieves, was more interesting with characters that I liked although they lacked dimension.  379 pages.