STORY: Locked away by her reclusive and intensely protective father, the recently deceased “Mad Lord of Northumberland,” Melissa is beautiful and educated but painfully naïve about the real world–and the dark secrets of her birth. Now in the care of her uncle, the Earl of Braddock, she must prepare to enter London society and find a proper husband, a task that grows complicated when she falls for the one man she can never have. Just as a promising new life begins to eclipse her tragic past, she’ll find herself consumed by a forbidden love that could destroy it all…
REVIEW: There’s nothing worse for a reviewer then the fear that one’s review of a beloved book will be weighed, measured and found wanting.
Ms. Jane Goodger is very new to me and after only two books, her writing leaves me breathless. She weaves her stories with out most care and I find her characters, even the ones on the periphery of the story, were given an element of humanity, which brought them to life for me.
Her broken heroes or heroines always rise like a phoenix from the ashes and my heart is filled with joy watching them reach their happily ever after.
She never takes her secondary characters for granted and she cleverly incites our curiosity with them that in the end we’re left asking to know and want one of their own stories. That was the case of Miss Diane Stenhope, our heroines chaperon and Lord Braddock, the hero’s father. Their happily ever after was as much interesting as John and Melissa’s. That kind of writing takes forethought and ingenuity and the author has achieved both in this novel.
The story was paced to perfection, as our hero and heroine slowly develop a friendship and comradery, which gives both time to develop deep and lasting feelings of love for one another. Melissa grew up in such a confined enviroment, that the first thing that comes to her mind when she meets John is a feeling of awe and strong desire, not of passion, but of longing to be just like him, fearless and carefree.
If you’re looking for a story that will curl your toes with sweet, passionate and very sensual content, you won’t go wrong in picking this one up.
ARC provided by the Author.
