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Summary
Summary
Beloved New York Times bestselling author Mary Balogh has written her most beguiling novel yet, in which the black sheep of the scandalous Huxtable family finally meets his match in a woman of even more wicked reputation. Her name is Hannah Reid. Born a commoner, she has been Duchess of Dunbarton ever since she was nineteen years old, the wife of an elderly duke to whom she has been rumored to be consistently and flagrantly unfaithful. Now the old duke is dead and, more womanly and beautiful than ever at thirty, Hannah has her freedom at last. And she knows just what she wants to do with it. To the shock of a conventional friend, she announces her intention to take a lover and not just any lover, but the most dangerous and delicious man in all of upper-class England: Constantine Huxtable. Constantine's illegitimacy has denied him the title of Earl, so now he denies himself nothing . . . or so the ton would have it. Rumored to be living the free and easy life of a sensualist in his country estate, he always chooses recent widows for his short-lived affairs. Hannah will fit the bill nicely. But once these two passionate and scandalous figures find each other, they discover that it isn't so easy to extricate oneself from the fires of desire'without getting singed. For the duchess and the dark lord each have startling secrets to reveal, and when all is said and done, neither will be able to say which one fell in love first, who tamed whom, and who has emerged from this game of hearts with the stronger hand.
Author Notes
Mary Balogh was born in Swansea, Wales on March 24, 1944. She received a B.A. with honors from the University of Wales in 1965. From 1967 to 1988, she taught high school English in Saskatchewan, Canada, becoming principal of the school in 1982.
Her first novel, A Masked Deception, was published in 1985 and she won the Romantic Times Award for best new Regency writer. Since then, she has written more than 60 novels and has received a lifetime achievement award for her work in the genre of historical romance. Her works include The Wood Nymph, Christmas Promise, The Plumed Bonnet, Famous Heroine, A Matter of Class, No Man's Mistress, More than a Mistress, One Night for Love, and Only a Kiss. Her title's Someone to Hold and Someone to Care made The New York Times Bestseller List.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (3)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Balogh's final entry in the Huxtable family saga focuses on enigmatic cousin Constantine, long the most maligned of the Huxtables. Hannah, widowed duchess of Dunbarton, has set her sights on Constantine as the ideal lover-a handsome man of experience that she can seduce and set aside once she is done with him. Constantine, meanwhile, is thrilled by Hannah's beauty, but scornful of her reputation, and though the intention is just to have a little fun, they fall in love. Balogh has saved the best for last; Constantine-dark, wicked, and cryptic-has a perfect foil in Hannah, and their encounters are steamy, their romance believable. Though series fans will be disappointed to see it come to a close, they couldn't ask for a better way to go out. (June) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Booklist Review
*Starred Review* One year after her husband's death, Hannah Reid, Duchess of Dunbarton, decides it's time to take a lover. Of course, being Hannah, she has already chosen her paramour: tall, dark, and sinfully sexy Constantine Huxtable. Hannah may have already decided they were meant to be together, but Con is a man used to making up his own mind. At first Con is amused by Hannah's blatant campaign of seduction. Then he becomes intrigued by the enigmatic beauty. Finally, because he always takes a lover during London's social season, he begins to ask himself why shouldn't it be Hannah? Although Hannah and Con might have agreed to become lovers, neither one expected to fall in love, which, of course, greatly complicates their secret affair. The exquisitely crafted chemistry that develops between Hannah and Con is pure passion deftly leavened with tart wit, which ensures that A Secret Affair, the concluding volume in Balogh's Regency historical Huxtable series, is a sweetly romantic, deliciously sexy triumph.--Charles, John Copyright 2010 Booklist
Library Journal Review
Wealthy, beautiful, and newly widowed, Hannah Reid, Duchess of Dunbarton, does exactly what the ton expects her to do-she decides to take a lover. Her choice? The sinfully handsome and perennially single yet untitled Constantine Huxtable, a man as dangerously appealing as he is unmarriageable-and perfect for her needs. Naturally, nothing goes as either had planned in this neatly choreographed romance that will fascinate readers as Balogh (Seducing an Angel) gradually peels away the layers of this complex, secrets-laden story with tantalizing skill and sympathetic care. VERDICT Poignant, thought-provoking, deliciously sensual, and completely enthralling, this polished gem is the last in the Huxtable quintet and one that Balogh's fans have been anxiously awaiting. Balogh lives in Canada. [See also our Q&A with the author, LJ 2/15/09, p. 90.] (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Excerpts
Excerpts
Chapter One Hannah Reid, Duchess of Dunbarton, was free at last. Free of the burden of a ten-year marriage, and free of the endlessly tedious year of deep mourning that had succeeded the death of the duke, her husband. It was a freedom that had been a long time coming. It was a freedom well worth celebrating. She had married the duke after a five-day acquaintance--his grace, all impatience to be wed, had procured a special license rather than wait for the banns to be read--when she was nineteen and he was somewhere in his seventies. No one seemed certain ofexactly where in his seventies that had been, though some said it was perilously close to eighty. At the time of her marriage, the duchess was a breathtakingly lovely girl, with a slender, lithe figure, eyes that rivaled a summer sky for blueness, a bright,eager face made for smiling, and long, wavy tresses that were almost white in their blondness--a shimmering white. The duke, on the other hand, had a body and face and head that showed all the ravages of age that time and years of hard living could possiblyhave piled upon them. And he suffered from gout. And from a heart that could no longer be relied upon to continue beating with steady regularity. She married him for his money, of course, expecting to be a very rich widow indeed within a matter of a few short years at most. She was a rich widow now, quite fabulously wealthy, in fact, though she had had to wait longer than expected for the freedomto enjoy her riches to the full. The old duke had worshiped the ground she walked upon, to use the old cliche. He had heaped so many costly clothes upon her person that she would have suffocated beneath their weight if she had ever tried to wear them all at once. A guest room next toher dressing room at Dunbarton House on Hanover Square in London had been converted into a second dressing room merely to accommodate all the silks and satins and furs--among other garments and accessories--that had been worn once, perhaps twice, before beingdiscarded for something newer. And the duke had had not one, not two, not even three, but four safes built into the walls of his own bedchamber to safeguard all the jewels with which he gifted his beloved over the years, though she was perfectly free to comeand fetch whichever of them she chose to wear at any time. He had been a doting, indulgent husband. The duchess was always gorgeously dressed. And she was always bedecked with jewels, ostentatiously large ones, usually diamonds. She wore them in her hair, in the lobes of her ears, at her bosom, on her wrists, on more than one of the fingers of each hand. The duke showed off his prize wherever he went, beaming with pride and adoration as he looked up at her. In his prime he would have been taller than she, but age had bent him and a cane supported him, and for much of his time he sat. His duchess did notstray far from his side when they were together, even when they were at a ball and prospective partners abounded. She tended him with her characteristic half-smile playing always about her lovely lips. She was always the picture of wifely devotion on such occasions.Nobody could deny that. When the duke could not go out himself--and it became increasingly difficult for him to do so as the years went on--then other men escorted his duchess to the social events with which the ton amused itself whenever it was in town in large numbers. Therewere three in particular--Lord Hardingraye, Sir Bradley Bentley, and Viscount Zimmer--all handsome, elegant, charming gentlemen. It was common knowledge that they enjoyed her company and that she enjoyed theirs. And no one was ever in any doubt of what wasincluded in that enjoyment. The only detail people wondered about--and wonder they did, of course, without ever reaching a satisfactory conclus Excerpted from A Secret Affair by Mary Balogh All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.