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A love forged through adversity….
Daughter of an illustrious artist, Lady Charlotte Pheland forges her late father’s paintings for the survival of herself, her sister, and her widowed mother. Charlotte slips from a ball to sell a painting to naval Captain Patrick Landsdowne, Lord Hawthorne. Disaster strikes when a duke arrives with a crowd of attendees only to discover their clandestine meeting, compromising them. To salvage their reputations, they announce their fake engagement.
Patrick sails for the West Indies, confident Charlotte will renege. But all goes horribly wrong when Patrick suffers a devastating accident at sea, returning to his family and Charlotte a broken man. Now, if Charlotte severs her engagement, society will vilify her. But if they marry, she will bind herself to a man who could reveal her secret forgeries.
Patrick will never again captain a ship, and he rails against his loss of purpose. Yet while convalescing, his heart warms to Charlotte’s kindness, talent, and perseverance. Meanwhile, she sees Patrick’s quips and sarcasm mask a caring person with a steel backbone and a gentle heart.
A murder complicates matters. Worse, a stranger’s obsession with Charlotte and her father’s art puts their lives in peril. Yet they find a harmony that surprises them both…until Patrick discovers her forgery.
Will Patrick reveal all, thus devastating Charlotte’s world and their budding relationship? Or will their engagement stand?
Even so, murder and obsession may destroy them both.
5 out of 5 (exceptional)
Independent Reviewer for Archaeolibrarian - I Dig Good Books!
This is book 2 in The Secret Tales series, but can totally be read as a stand alone. I would say, as a personal point, that you will get a better understanding of the ladies of this time, and what they have to do to stay safe. It's also a stunning 5 star read, so you know, get to it!
I loved The Bond, and I loved this one too, for very different reasons!
The Bond is a slow burn, low steam book. Very much a fade to black book. And this one? Not so much! It's a tad steamier, but not explicit, at all. Patrick and Charlotte are perfect for each other, even if they were never meant to be. And I loved that difference about the two books, I really did.
I loved how Patrick deals with his injury: by not letting it get the better of him. Being confined to a wheelchair after a life at sea would be hard for anyone to deal with, but Patrick and his family set out to make his life easier, but not limiting. I gather from reading this, that injuries of this sort at that time were far more devastating than they are in this time. But once Patrick got his head round what HE needed, he got to it, and devised his new wheelchair, adapted his house to accomodate his chair. I love that his sister devised a new saddle for him to continue to ride his horse.
Lottie's forging her father's work is their only real stumbling block, but once Patrick knows WHY she does it, he understands, but makes sure Lottie knows it cannot continue once they are married. But that takes a nasty turn, and I really did not see that coming at me!
I had to giggle though, out loud! It was so funny, reading about what Lottie thought was going to happen on her wedding night. She really had no clue and it was Rose who educated her. Proper made me laugh! I loved that Rose and Rhys (since Rhys is Patrick's brother) play a huge part here, it was so lovely to catch up with them.
I wrote at the end of my review for The Bond that I thought one of Rose's sisters was the second book, but I cannot remember which one! However, Lottie is not one of Rose's sisters and one of LOTTIE'S sisters has the next book.
I love this group of ladies, and the men who fall for them and I really look forward to catching up with the supporting cast in future books, cos there are some interesting side characters!
Loved it, so it can only get:
5 full and shiny stars
** same worded review will appear elsewhere **
* A copy of this book was provided to me with no requirements for a review. I voluntarily read this book; the comments here are my honest opinion. *
Award-winning author Vicki Stiefel now also writes as Sanna Brand, whose Regency Romance, THE BOND (Book 1, The Secret Tales) launches May 15. Vicki’s fantasy romance series, The Made Ones Saga, launched with ALTERED, continued with CHANGED, and climaxed with ASCENDANT.
Vicki continues work on her Afterworld Chronicles and her award-winning mystery/thrillers feature homicide counselor Tally Whyte.
Vicki tapped into her love of knitting to produce Chest of Bone The Knit Collection and co-write 10 Secrets of the LaidBack Knitters.
After running The Writers Studio with her late husband, William G. Tapply, Vicki taught fiction and modern media writing for six years at Clark University.
She grew up in professional theater and planned to become an actress. Instead, she slung hamburgers, managed a scuba shop, and became a college professor. She is a mom to two wonderful humans and a furry pack. Her passions for scuba diving, fly fishing, knitting, and horses pop up in her novels, as do chocolate, bourbon, and lobster. Currently, she's playing with her pups, Penny and Bash, and her kitty, Sammy, while working on THE DECEPTION, the second book in The Secret Tales.