BOOK REVIEW- THE REBEL HEIR by Elizabeth Michels

The Spare Heirs Society Cordially Invites You to Meet Ash Claughbane: The Imposter

Lady Evangeline Green is living a lie. To please her family, she masquerades as the perfect debutante...until she meets the wickedly charming Lord Crosby. With him, there are no rules. She's finally free to do as she desires-but freedom comes with a price, and Lord Crosby is not what he seems...
  

Ash is not Lord Crosby. He's a con artist, a noble Spare Heir living off his silver tongue. When the Green family ruined his, he swore he'd make them pay, and he never doubted his devotion to revenge...until he met Evangeline. Now, caught in a web of lies, torn between duty and desire, what's a con to do but deceive all of London and steal the one lady who dared match wits with the devil himself?  

AMAZON  3.5 STARS

I liked this book okay but it seemed so slow at times.  The slower pace does give the story time to establish how horrible Evangeline's life is with her mother though.

The interesting thing about this story is that BOTH of the main characters are living a lie.  For both of them the lie is a different kind of lie but it's still a lie.

No one had any idea how brutal Evangeline's mother was when it came to how much she controlled her daughter.   All that most people see is how "perfect" she is.  It's all a perfectly controlled image.  It's incredible how insane that control was, Evangeline could barely draw breath without permission.  Can you imagine someone watching your every move?  Someone who makes sure that you only took only 3 bites of any sweets, picked the clothing you would wear and what you could say? She was never satisfied with Evangeline and was a social climber of the worst order.  She already had money and was married to a "title".  

"Crosby" or Ash as he is often called, is running yet another scam. This is one that he has had a burning  desire to finish for some time.  Not only that but there are people hot on his heels looking for justice against him. He does have some people backing him though through the lifetime friend/assistant to the society that he recently joined for the Spare Heirs.  He is charming, funny and helps "Evie" loosen up a bit from the strict routines she is in.  Of course he got her to loosen up when it came to the more intimate things as well.  What doesn't anyone worry about a pregnancy or what?  

The story does have a few spectacular things happen to bring it to a more explosive ending.   Even Evie gets her own kind of smile worthy revenge as well.