I love Kerrigan Byrne's writing style. I simply do. She has a way of bringing angst, ache and longing into a story in a meaningful and beautiful way. This novel is not an exception.
Both Ramsay and Cecelia have tragic childhoods marked by loneliness and abuse. It was really interesting to see how that past shaped them in a different way: Ramsay is cold and shut to emotions while Cecelia lives to help and care for others. I love how they complement each other and bring the best in each other. There's intrigue, danger and mysteries that unfold at the last minute that make this story a beautiful read.

I had high expectations for this one and I did like the book eventually, but...
I've got to say that I love Kerrigan Byrne's writing and her characters, but the hero in this one - Ramsay was such a rude guy(trying not to swear lol), I didn't even want the heroine to end up with him at one point. His own friend Piers calls him out on it and I was glad for that. He does make up for it later and I don't expect my heroes to be perfect, but it was annoying at first when he was so judgemental towards the heroine, I did love Cecilia though! She really kept this book going for me and I was glad for that! I hope the next one's better as I'm quite excited for that couple!

This was the second book that I’ve read by this author and unfortunately we do not click. Maybe it was me who might have read these at the wrong time, but I could not get into it and ended up putting them down. It’s been a good year and I still can’t finish. So it’s time to just leave it be.

Thank you Netgalley for the opportunity.

This series revolves around three women: Alexandra, Cecelia, and Francesca. The trio call themselves the Red Rogues. Each book in the series can act as a standalone. The first book is Alexandra’s story. The second is Cecilia’s and the final book is Francesca’s.

Cecelia is a heroine to marvel. She is utter kindness and brilliance, even though she has very real fears. She endured a harsh childhood but revels in life as an adult.

Cecelia inherits a gambling establishment and decides, with the help of the Red Rogues, to turn her new home into a school for young girls. A haven to the girls whose fathers and brothers died on her own late husband’s ship. Because of her own background, Cecelia is adamant about supporting women and their rights, and this is her first step to do that.

Upon beginning this process of establishing her school, Cecelia’s overbearing neighbor, Cassius Ramsay (a chief justice) blazes into her home. This is not one of those “put your best foot forward” times. Cassius grossly miscalculates Cecelia and her purpose, but he makes it well-known that he is determined to bring hell upon one of the most notorious gaming halls. He was intimidating and scary, but Cecelia doesn’t cower.

The writing brings flawed characters, witty banter, and heated controversies. Cassius is a hard man, skeptical and wary. He stands in conviction that he is a man without fault.

Cecelia is struggling to understand all that she’s inherited from her aunt, including her role as The Scarlet Lady. She doesn’t know the full breadth of her aunt’s business dealings or anything about the villainous Crimson Council.

While Cassius is not entirely convinced about Cecelia or her school exploit, he does begin to see beyond his career. He almost takes it upon himself to become the protector and helper for Cecelia and the girls. Slowly, the pair build a foundation of trust with an overpowering sexy chemistry.

With Cassius’s role as a chief justice and his drive to bring down certain entities in town, things get convoluted when Cecelia gets mixed up in her ignorance of her aunt’s previous dealings. Cassius is bent on ending the kidnapping and sex trafficking, and both wind up tangling with the Crimson Council.

This was so GOOD!!! I absolutely love Kerrigan Byrne and her writing style!! I adored book one but I think this may be a new favorite for me from her! I thought the concept was a lot of fun with having Cecelia and Ramsay fall for each other, while he’s actually hating the other side of her not knowing that it’s her! It was so different and built so much suspense!!! THE ANGST WAS KILLING ME IN THE BEST WAY!!! Then the romance that came out of it was just beautiful and I was smiling so hard at the end!! I loved this one so much!!

This is book 2 in the Devil You Know Series. Cassius is a judge on the High Court. He is trying to shut down the gambling hell that he believes is causing all the problems. Cecelia is the owner of that gambling hell. She is just trying to keep her business alive. Then a sudden an unexpected attraction throws her whole world into turmoil. Can she keel her business or will the sudden attraction make it go up in smoke?

I absolutely loved All Scot and Bothered so much I went back to read Alex’s story. This was the first book I read of the trilogy and to be could be read as a stand-alone but I would recommend reading all three. I’ll be reading Frank’s story next. I have to admit the beginning of Cecelia’s story was dark but I hung in there. Then we meet Ramsay and he’s a little to wound up for my liking. He was definitely a hard man to like in the beginning but he slowly grew on me. In my opinion, the plot was unique and surprising. Usually, I’m able to figure out the details but this one caught me by surprise, although, there wasn’t really any clues. All in all, it’s a great read and I highly recommend it.

Kerrigan Byrne has been on my to-read list for ages. I've heard so much fantastic hype about her books, and I'm so happy to say that All Scot and Bothered lived up to it all!

Cecelia Teague inherits two things from the late aunt she never met: a gambling hall and dark secrets that put her life in danger. Ramsay, Lord Chief Justice of the High Court, is determined to uncover those secrets, and along the way reluctantly finds himself drawn to Cecelia.

Byrne delivers a tale packed with drama, angst, betrayal, and heat. Ramsay is a complex hero who must confront his own misogyny and recognize how close-minded he's been, while also grappling with the trauma of his past he's tried to bury. Meanwhile, Cecelia was a heroine who had me cheering as she stood up for herself, for the idea that kindness doesn't make one weak, and for those she loved.

With a fast-paced plot and sizzling chemistry between the leads, this was an impossible book to put down. My one con involves a throwaway line that seemed to imply the villain was queer (and with this being the only queer character given a name in the book, it did feel like it fell into harmful stereotypes). However, I've heard that Byrne includes positive queer rep in a number of other books and this has left me eager to read more from her as soon as I can!

All Scot and Bothered by Kerrigan Byrne is the second novel in her Devil You Know series. Kerrigan Byrne is a master of giving readers engaging, sexy, and complex historical novels and this one is no different. Get this delightful historical novel immediately and go back and read all of her other novels.

While I really enjoyed this book, it does have a bit of a complicated plot. I was pretty much able to follow but also felt like there are more answers to be had, especially about the Crimson Council. I loved seeing Cecelia and Ramsay go head to head though.

3.5 stars

I was all set to write a glowing review of this one as I started and read along - the fact the Scarlet Lady is revealed to be Cecelia fairly early in the plot make me go 'Yay!' because then, it wouldn't be a case of the blurb already giving away 2/3rds of the book, and thus there was much left to be discovered in the rest of the book. This worked out fairly well...until they got to Scotland, and the pace just nose-dived for me, getting so slow and sluggish. I get that it was probably done to establish the romance developing between Ramsay and Cecelia, but the pace took a huge hit, and it was like everything else that was supposed to be the plot for this story just got brushed aside in a sort of 'Plot? What plot?' manner that fairly grated - and then the rushed conclusion when the 'plot' returned in full force just felt too jumbled and forced.
That could've killed just one star from my review...but then we get to the atrocious butchering of the French language in there! It seems a bit hard to believe the author and all the people at the publishing house don't know someone who knows French and could've checked the few French phrases and words in there to make sure they were spelled right and with the right masculine/feminine construction the language requires (example, bonbon is masculine, never mind if you're using it as an endearment for a woman or a man - it's always written the masculine way mon petit bonbon and never ma petite bonbon That this was also uttered by a man who is supposed to be French was even more cringe-worthy! Sadly looks like the whole team of author and editor and publishing house barely went beyond Google Translate for the French (and actually, even Google Translate gives the accurate construction!)

There is something about heroines who turn grumpy priggish heroes into an adoring lover that really floats my boat. In particular, I loved this strong, interesting heroine!

Anything Kerrigan Byrne writes is amazing! Her books always make you wanting more. Her stories are so engaging and her characters are so in depth. Just love her books!

What woman isn't bothered by a Scot? In the good sense that is, all that brawn and burr. . What's not to love? Well it took awhile to fall in love with this one, but it is worth it in the end!

Two people influenced by their upbringing. but turning out opposite. Cecelia who had a terrible childhood but was very intelligent, caring and not your typical delicate woman.. Lord Ramsey, know as the Vicar of Vice, was a little arrogant and thought it was his way or not at all. But that was about to change as these two meet.

Danger, suspense and a building attraction bring this story to a wonderful ending. Loved these two and their journey!

Oh my heart! This was FABULOUS!!! Enemies to Lovers, my FAVORITE trope! Ray of sunshine and the grump! The stubborn Scot and the vivacious woman! I LOVED Cecilia SO MUCH! She was perfect! So lovely, so smart, sweet, progressive and empathetic! I related to her so much! She needs to be loved and protected at ALL COST! Cassius, oh Cassius! A man whom you love to HATE but then learns the greatest lessons and had the perfect character arc! This book is EVERYTHING! Gave me all the feels! Broke my heart then put it back together! I enjoyed this so much more than the first because I felt it fixed where the first one went wrong! It was beautiful with the perfect amount of angst! The slow burn was well worth it!

I absolutely devoured All Scot and Bothered! My heart broke all the way open for Cecilia from the first chapter and she continued to endear herself to me throughout the entire book with her intelligence, morality, and courage. I love that she is fierce in her own way and I really love the overarching theme of feminism I'm seeing in this series. Ramsey was set up as an intriguing character in the first book and his character arc and background story are almost as compelling as Cecilia's. I will say that the underlying "whodunit" plot is sort of reminiscent of the plot in the latter part of the Maiden Lane series by Elizabeth Hoyt, so if you enjoy the whole evil secret society is the villain trope, you should enjoy this as well. 5 out of 5 wine glasses.

All Scot and Bothered by Kerrigan Byrne was another great read by her! I will read anything this lady has to offer!

After the wonderful first book, its successor ended up to be quite a disappointment.

The blurb promised something the story didn't quite achieve. I hoped the big secret of who the new owner of the gaming hell/school for young ladies was would last longer than just one chapter. But the major problem this book had was the hero. And I'm sad to say this, since I love Scottish heroes. But let's face it, Ramsay was a dick and an asshole. He sure didn't come across as such in his half-brother's book.
I didn't appreciated the heroine that much either. Especially her constantly keeping secrets even after the guy opened himself up to her. It still took her butler to lay it all down for Ramsay.

With a dickish hero and a mulish heroine, the romance left much to be desired. Beside their affinity in bed and common childhood traumas (which she neglected to mention, mind you), the two had rather little in common, resulting in their "romance" to be anything but. I couldn't root for the two neither as individuals nor as a couple.

The only saving grace this story had was the suspense subplot about missing children (a bit of a peeve: you can't give a supposedly Russian girl a surname obviously from the Balkans!), the conspiracy reaching high up in the British society and court and the main villain whose reveal came as rather a surprise.

Warnings for child abuse, neglect, gambling

I love love Kerrigan Byrne’s work. The Highwayman is one of my favourite historical romances so I was absolutely thrilled to be able to read this one. Only I couldn’t bring myself to fall for this one as much as I have some of her other works. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a solid book and it’s dark and very sexy, but it just didn’t work for me this time.

My issue mainly was with the hero. I can never bring myself to like his type. He’s basically a priggish jerk who doesn’t trust anyone and is quick to judge everyone for the slightest misdeed. He’s a sanctimonious ass for most of the book and he doesn’t really start apologising for his behaviour until about 60% of the way in, and that’s way too late for him to start being nice to the heroine in my opinion.

Talking about the heroine though. Cecilia rocked my socks off! Byrne is so good at writing kickass females. Cecilia is sweet, and curvy and she has a fantastic appetite. Basically she’s my kind of heroine and I’ve loved her since book one so I was a bit let down by her hero, I wanted better for her!

I will say my favourite thing about this series so far is the friendship between the three heroines. They really trust and rely on each other and their bond is so close, I loved every scene they were in together. There is probably less of them together in this one than book one but I still got very excited every time one of the others showed up.

There wasn’t much of the overall plot from the first book in All Scot and Bothered, which I kind of missed. I’m so eager for more about Francesca and her revenge plot that it was a bit frustrating that it didn’t play out more here. I can’t wait to read book three and find out what happens there! (That ending!)

All in all this was a solid read for me. Definitely not my favourite Byrne but I’m still eagerly awaiting the third in the series!

This BBW historical romance was gripping. I wanted to know what happened next.
The sexual tension is very high, in part because of the H's background. The weaving of the relationship was well done and a roller coaster of uncertainty.
While I devoured this, once was good for me.

Plot deals with mature themes, including rape and child prostitution.

I voluntarily reviewed an ARC from Netgalley.