The Switch

Professional Reviews

Reviews For THE SWITCH by Emma Wildes

Gold Star Award

Jacqueline knows she is lucky to have married for love as it's an unusual circumstance among her peers. She has just become Lady Trevor, wife of Adam Trevor, the sixth Earl of Hallworth and she knows she is also lucky to be fond of her husband’s brother, Alex.

Adam loves Jacqueline more than life. It is important to Adam that she is fond of Alex, because he and Alex are identical twins and especially close. Her love and high opinion of Alex are paramount to his happiness. When a groin injury prevents him from consummating the marriage, he comes up with an elaborate scheme to prevent his new bride from ever knowing his injury has made him less than a man. Alex is terrified and completely against the idea, but he can refuse his twin nothing and finally begrudgingly agrees. Adam feels certain Jacqueline is so innocent that she will never notice the difference between Alex and Adam when they switch places in bed. Will they be able to fool Jacqueline and if she finds out can life ever be normal again?

The Switch has endearing characters, a shocking and exciting plot, and enough passionate love scenes to leave me breathless with need. I loved every minute of it. Jacqueline, Adam and Alex were all lovable people in an untenable situation. Even the actions that pitted the brothers against each other were brought about by love. Adam loved his wife so much he was willing to do anything for her happiness, even though his pride surely played a part. Alex loved Adam enough to do anything he asked of him, even against his better judgment. Alex, the lady killer, was so affected, his life was changed by seeing the difference love makes in the bedroom. I couldn’t help identifying with all three of them and aching along with them. In this story, the sex is an integral part of the plot and flows seamlessly throughout. As bizarre as the events were, the explanation given in the story made it all seem so natural and completely believable. This is a story about the love and sacrifice of each of the characters. Alex was very aware of Jacqueline’s innocence and worked tirelessly at making a good showing for his brother and at being especially tender with his sister-in-law. Jacqueline was understanding and very wise. I congratulate Ms. Wildes on her erotic love scenes. I was more aroused by this story than by anything I’ve ever read. Night after night, Alex and Jacqueline shared very explicit scenes of intimate lovemaking that left me flushed and sometimes breathless from reading them. I still get chill bumps just by recalling the tender and intensely passionate passages. The resolution of their little problem was also believable and wonderful. I couldn’t guess how the author could possibly pull it off, but the amazing Ms. Wildes did it beautifully. I applaud the way the story showed women capable of solving even the most unusual puzzles men create. The Switch is one book I will be reading over and over again.

Karen H., Just Erotic Romance Reviews

4 Stars

Ms. Wildes has created a highly passionate and romantic story about a man who truly loves his wife and that he would go to great lengths in becoming her husband, even to switch places with his identical twin brother. Adam and Alex are two heroes that are like night and day. Their physicality is the only thing identical; Adam is the more reserved and responsible twin while Alex is the wild and reckless rake. I found myself unable to choose which twin I liked the most, the more I got to know about these two men, the more I wanted to be in Jacqueline’s situation. As for Jacqueline, she may be inexperienced in the bedroom but she is a highly intelligent young woman with a compassionate and understanding nature. The sex scenes are seductive, intense and stimulating. Even though Alex is just a proxy lover to Jacqueline, they develop more than a physical bond. Adam, a desperate man due his predicament, starts to show some insecurities/jealousy and I found myself not liking his character just a little bit. Theoretically, Adams plans seemed like the logical choice at that time and I do agree that Jacqueline, Adam and Alex needed to have this agreement in order to overcome their insecurities but the best laid plans doesn’t always involve the heart. A secondary character, Cara Kelton, Jacqueline’s best friend, is a likeable young widow who deserves to find happiness. Honestly, I am not a big fan of the Historical genre but after reading this delightful story, I really didn’t want it to end. I look forward to reading more from Ms. Wildes.

Tallyn Porter, Just Erotic Romance Reviews

Excerpt

Sample Chapter For THE SWITCH by Emma Wildes

God in heaven, it had come. This was the day.

Opening her eyes, Jacqueline Ross saw soft sunshine falling in blocks across her bedroom, the sky outside her window a vivid blue.

Sitting up, she shook back her long hair and stifled a surge of nervous excitement as she reached for the bell pull. Already she was trembling in excitement, she thought ruefully, and the ceremony wouldn’t be until late afternoon.

That was when she would become Lady Trevor, the bride of the sixth Earl of Hallworth. It was hard to believe that she could be so lucky as to actually marry for love when so many of her friends and acquaintances were forced to accept arranged unions based on financial and social reasons. The fact that her future husband was gorgeously handsome, infallibly considerate, and considered the catch of the season, made it all even more like some romantic fable in which the princess finds her heroic and dashing prince and they live happily ever after…

Tonight, she thought, her face heating, she would truly become his wife in every way.

“Good morning, miss.” Her maid, Mary, bustled in with a tray, her smiling face reflecting Jacqueline’s own joy. “It’s a lovely day for a wedding, if I may say so.”

Propped back on her pillows, Jackie agreed dreamily, “It’s like a dream come true.”

* * * *

“I feel as if I’m trapped in a damned nightmare,” Adam Trevor admitted in a strained voice, walking slowly across his study to stare out the window at the mockingly beautiful sky. Not a cloud in sight, he thought with cynical despair, when it would have been much more appropriate to his mood to have dreary droplets of rain cascading downward in an interminable downpour. “It’s my damned wedding day, for God’s sake.”

Behind him, his brother sat in a shocked silence. Adam could almost feel Alex’s effort to grope for words…not even the right words, just anything to say to a man who had just admitted such a devastating secret. If their roles were reversed, he would also be speechless. Finally, Alex murmured hoarsely, “I assume you have been to more than one physician.”

Without turning around, Adam replied wearily, “Hell, of course. Though, quite frankly, it isn’t the most enjoyable thing to explain to anyone, even a doctor, that you are having trouble functioning as a man. I am also not anxious to have others know this—I’m sure you can sympathize with that sentiment.” Slowly turning, using his cane, Adam felt the flush of a ridiculous shame climb up his neck. “They all say the same thing. When I was injured in the accident six weeks ago, the damage to the groin muscles probably restricts the blood flow in that…crucial area.” His smile was a twisted parody of the real thing. “All I know is that when I hold Jacqueline in my arms now, I feel the same ardent desire, but my body doesn’t respond as it should. I just don’t get…hard. I couldn’t believe it at first…I have always tried to be so careful that she never noticed my reaction whenever I touched her, and believe me, I reacted as any man would.”

“I’m sure. She’s a very beautiful woman. However, as a gentleman, you can’t really touch her yet; maybe your body knows that…have you tried someone else?”

“Yes,” Adam’s face tightened, he could feel it despite his quest for control. “One of Eleanor’s best girls…a luscious brunette courtesan with undeniable talents. I was both humiliated and unsuccessful. Apparently, this does happen to some men from time to time, and she seemed to think nothing about it. I pretended to have imbibed a great deal of claret, and she laughingly tucked me into bed. Needless to say, it had never happened to me before, and that’s when I became truly concerned.”

“Does Jacqueline know about this…this problem?”

“She’s innocent, of course, and has no idea there’s anything wrong. Hell, she’s the last person I would ever tell.” Adam added harshly and honestly, “You’re my brother and there’s no denying we’re closer than most siblings, yet it sorely grates on my pride to admit this to you, much less to the woman I love.”

“Jesus.” Shoving himself abruptly to his feet, Alex crossed the room and fumbled with the brandy decanter. “I don’t care if it’s still morning, I need a drink.”

“Pour me one, too,” Adam muttered. “God knows I need one for the next part of our conversation.”

Dashing brandy carelessly into snifters, Alex walked over and handed one to him, furrowing his brow. “Next part? Please tell me the doctors predict you’ll recover.”

The brandy burned going down and hit his empty stomach like a slamming fist; he took such a big gulp. Adam coughed and responded grimly, “They think so.”

Sinking back into a leather chair, his long legs sprawled, and carelessly dangling his glass from long, elegant fingers, his brother asked cautiously, “Only think so?”

“No assurances. There is a lot of swelling still, and torn muscles take time. That could be the problem…they think it is, and as it mends, the inflammation will hopefully subside and not impede the vessels necessary for normal sexual arousal.” Adam took another deep drink of the bracing beverage in his hand and tried to sound matter-of-fact. “But…it’s possible I will never again be able to achieve an erection.”

Saying the words out loud was worse than hearing them, he found, and hearing them had been like a knife being impaled through his chest.

Shoving his hand carelessly through his thick hair, Alex stared at him in sympathetic male consternation, a dawning realization of his true plight in his eyes. “Bloody hell, Adam, what are you going to do? Like you said, this is your damned wedding day.”

Lifting his brows, he asked caustically, “Do you think I don’t know that? Why the devil do you think I’m telling you something this personal anyway?”

If Alex was anything, he was blunt. He was also reckless, charming, and beyond a doubt, one of England’s most determined rakehells, but he was always forthright. He said frankly, “Is it fair to your lovely betrothed to marry her, knowing you may never be able to be a true husband or give her children?”

That, of course, was the horrible moral dilemma, the one he’d struggled with ever since he realized there was a problem after the accident. “I love her,” Adam said simply, moving to sink painfully into the chair behind his desk, setting his cane aside. “Passionately, completely, with every fiber of my being. I will do anything to have her as my wife. In fact, I think I’m about to prove that.”

Obviously puzzled and concerned, Alex lifted his dark blond brows. “Stop talking in cryptic circles, would you? This is a mess, and yet you haven’t even told your unknowing bride something that might seriously concern her future. It isn’t like you, Adam, to be anything but completely responsible…I’m the wild one, remember? What are you going to tell your gorgeous wife tonight when you don’t consummate your union? Putting it off won’t help anything.”

“It might, if I recover. She doesn’t have to ever know.”

“That’s an interesting delusion,” Alex murmured incredulously, “and I’m not being cruel because you’re my brother and I can’t even imagine how you feel, but I happen to be fond of my future sister-in-law, and this doesn’t seem very equitable to her.”

Leaning his arm on his desk, Adam asked evenly, “How fond?”

“What?” Alex stopped, his brandy glass arrested at his lips.

They had always had the ability—perhaps it was those nine months spent in the womb together—to read each other’s thoughts with uncanny precision. Adam just sat there and gazed at his brother with an unfaltering stare and saw at once when Alex comprehended what he was suggesting. “It would work,” he said softly and quickly before his brother could protest, “think about it. Yes, she knows me…but not in the muted light, in bed, where Jackie has absolutely no experience. She’s a virgin, so she’ll be nervous, and the last thing on her mind would be a suspicion that it was you, and not me, bedding her. In fact, the notion is ludicrous, isn’t it? We’re unusually close, true, but who on earth would think I would let my brother have carnal knowledge of my wife?”

“No one, because it’s insane,” Alex rasped out, sitting utterly still, his azure eyes narrowed. “Are you really asking me to fuck Jacqueline for you?”

Adam eyed the wavy dark blond curls that brushed his brother’s neck, the straight nose—perhaps a little long, the high cheekbones and thickly-lashed blue eyes that were as familiar as looking in a mirror. He said unemotionally, “We are identical twins, Alex, and we have fooled other people plenty of times, including our own mother. In fact, most people can’t tell us apart, even those who have known us for years. Fool Jackie and leave me forever in your debt.”

“You can’t mean it.” The raw note in Alex’s voice was a mixture of disbelief and an understanding of what it had cost to even suggest such a mad scheme. “How the hell would you endure it, Adam? You love her, you just said so, and I know it’s true…I envy you for it, if you want the truth, because I have never loved a woman in any other but the most physical of ways.”

“If it means I get to keep her, to be her husband, to smile at her over the breakfast table, and have her on my arm at the opera and the parties so the world knows she’s mine…that will make me endure it.” It was the simple truth. He’d sat and weighed the myriad of his emotions one by one and found that risking losing her was simply not an option. “I don’t want her to know about my condition. This is the only way. Luckily, you sold your townhouse and will be staying here at Hallworth, so when we switch places and you go to her, it will be easy.”

“Christ…you aren’t even talking about just one night, are you?” Alex shook his head, looking uncharacteristically rattled, the suave smooth charm he was renowned for replaced by reluctant uncertainty. “I don’t think we can pull this off, Adam. Yes, we look exactly alike, that I grant, but we aren’t similar in personality. I am not sure I can even act the staid and responsible earl, especially in the capacity to which we are referring.”

“Feel free not to. I have an intense passion for her, as a woman she senses it, and I have told her so. In the bedroom, everyone is allowed to be different. If as a lover, all Jackie knows is you, she won’t think anything of the fact I am not the same during the day.” His throat suddenly tight, Adam toyed with his now empty glass and said somberly, “Though I ask you to do this, the risk is entirely mine, brother. My happiness is what lies in the balance, that, and holding on to what I value in this world more than title and wealth. If she finds out, I will answer to her.”

“I suspect that’s the truth,” Alex said forcefully. “At the very least you are making her an unwitting adulteress. And as for myself, I am not sure what position you are putting me in.”

“Desperate measures apply to this situation.”

“I suppose they do.”

“Then you agree?”

For a long moment, Alex sat there in frowning silence. Then he lifted his glass in a mock salute and drained it. He said darkly, “You are my brother. Did you ever doubt I would?”

* * * *

The mansion in Mayfair was alive with lights and people.

The music swirled upward, the floor glittering with hundreds of guests as the orchestra played a popular waltz. The ballroom was resplendent with flowers, food, and champagne flowed like water. Everywhere there were guests drinking, laughing, and celebrating.

Celebrating the marriage of the Earl of Hallworth and his undeniably radiant bride.

It was true, Alex Trevor thought, as he watched his brother attempt a slow and awkward dance with a laughing Jacqueline in his arms, they were a striking couple. It was incredible, but his brother had pulled off the wedding ceremony with complete composure, not once by look or gesture giving any clue to his personal agony. Tall and blond, he gazed at his new wife with open and complete adoration, the cane he’d had to use since the riding accident that had almost crippled him in one hand, his other arm around her dainty waist.

Adam’s bride was stunning at all times, but particularly this night in a wedding dress of pale blue silk strung with hundreds of tiny seed pearls, her shining auburn hair caught up in a cascade of gleaming curls that fell over her pale, slender shoulders. Her figure was enough to make any woman envious, full breasts emphasizing a slender waist and graceful hips, her ivory skin an arresting contrast to her rich hair, her long-lashed eyes a soft shade of gray so unusual that they were actually silver. Delicately featured and intensely feminine, upon her bow into London society, Jacqueline Ross had drawn the eyes of most of the young bucks of the ton, but as far as Alex could tell, she had fallen almost immediately for his brother and her affection had nothing to do with the title or wealth he offered her.

Dammit, they were in love and it was preposterous that fate had to meddle with such remorseless glee in their happiness.

Using him as a Satan’s instrument, no less—the deceptive by-proxy lover who was supposed to make this a night an innocent young woman would remember forever.

Reaching for a passing tray, Alex wryly plucked a glass of sparkling wine from it and lifted it to his lips, draining it swiftly. To his dismay, he heard the huge clock in the outer hall begin to chime, even above the ripple of the music the distinct clang of the clapper intoning the midnight hour.

And this was the first time in his life, he reminded himself with sardonic humor, that he wasn’t looking forward to fucking a beautiful, willing woman. His reputation as a profligate rogue was fairly earned…he enjoyed women and had a healthy sexual appetite that he appeased quite often.

But tonight was not going to be a lighthearted romp between the sheets with some bored young wife of an elderly baronet, or a heated interlude with the newest voluptuous actress to grace the London stage…tonight he was supposed to perform the ultimate betrayal he could ever imagine and make love to his brother’s new wife.

Since it was the appointed hour, he didn’t stay, but instead slipped out and went upstairs, as he had agreed to do, using a back servants’ stairway, knowing they were all occupied with the bustle of having so many guests. Once in his own suite, glancing at the clock, Alex discarded his cravat. As Adam had instructed, he waited about thirty minutes and then picked up a bottle of fine French brandy and left the room.

His brother’s young valet answered the door. Lifting the bottle with a grin, Alex said jokingly, “One last drink before he surrenders himself fully to the chains of matrimony, Harper. It isn’t every day my only brother gets married.”

“Of course, sir. The earl said you might stop by before he retires.”

Adam was half-undressed, discarding his shirt. With perfect calm direction, he lifted a dark blond brow and said, “Thanks, Harper, you may go, and I doubt I’ll need you early tomorrow for understandable reasons.”

The boy colored slightly at the direct reference to the upcoming night, and then bowed away, closing the door behind him. Almost immediately, Adam said urgently, “Give me your shirt and jacket…our trousers look close enough to be interchangeable. Here’s my dressing gown, disrobe and put it on. I told Jackie I would give her half an hour.”

Holding his brother’s gaze for a long moment, Alex asked hoarsely, “You’re sure? It isn’t too late to explain it all to her…she loves you; even for a jaded roué like me, that’s plain to see. She’ll understand—”

“No, damn it all, I can’t stand the thought that she would know.” Adam’s face twisted in pain as he interrupted, his blue eyes shadowed and darkly desperate. “You’ll take care with her innocence, I know that. Jesus,” briefly he ran his hand over his face, “this is almost unbearable, but not as much as having her think of me as less than a man. Do you have any idea how much I love her?”

The concept of love wasn’t something he was well-versed in, but Alex had stood by that altar and seen the look on his brother’s face when he recited his vows before God and the company assembled. “Yes,” he said softly. “I think I do.”

“Here.” Adam tugged off his wedding ring and extended it. “You’ll need to wear this…she’ll expect it, of course. My advice would be to actually talk as little as possible, except what needs to be said, so she…understands what you are doing. I don’t want her frightened.”

“If you are still certain you wish this, I promise to take every care with your new countess, brother.”

“You know what the worst part of this is for me?” Adam asked as he slid his arms into the shirt Alex handed him, his mouth thinning into a cynical smile. “It’s the fact that I want her to enjoy tonight, to experience sexual gratification and climax as you use that damned expertise you’ve perfected by gracing the beds of hundreds of ladies.” He added softly, “That is how much I love her.”

Not sure what to say, Alex cinched the silk dressing gown and stayed silent.

Slowly, his older brother extended the cane he now used to ease the pain from his injuries. “You might want this, though I don’t use it all the time, and remember to limp.” Adam murmured, “We’ll exchange places once you are sure she’s asleep.” His mouth twisted. “Just come get me. Don’t worry about the hour, I’ll be awake.”

Somehow, Alex didn’t doubt that.