One title to change his life… he’s found the lady for the job… until Rothwell discovers her dangerous secret life.
One chance to break the rules…
Lady Madeleine Vaillant may be the perfect chaperone, but she can’t face her blighted future without making one glorious memory for herself. In disguise, on a London stage, she finds all the adoration she never felt from the ton. But when she’s nearly recognized, she will do anything to hide her identity – even making a devil’s bargain with Rothwell, who saves her from discovery by claiming her as his mistress. She’ll take the pleasure he offers – but Madeleine won’t lose her heart in the bargain.
One season to fall in love…
Every stolen kiss could lead to discovery, and Rothwell’s old enemies are determined to ruin them both. But as their dangerous passion ignites their hearts and threatens their futures, how can an heiress who dreams of freedom deny the duke who demands her love?
—
Series: Muses of Mayfair #1
Next Book: Scotsmen Prefer Blondes, Muses of Mayfair #2 – available now!
Genre: Regency Historical
Setting: London, 1812
Length: 94,000 words (full-length novel)
Sensuality: Hot
You may like this if you like: women in disguise, actresses, dukes, reformed rakes, female friendships, girls with secret artistic passions, and guys who aren’t afraid to say they’re in love
more
Loved it! Could not put it down! Great writing! Looking forward to reading the next one!
It was good
Great characters, very steamy love scenes. I really enjoyed this book.
I loved the book. It was steamy, sweet, and with a happy ever after ending!
I loved it! It kept me intrigued and I couldn’t stop reading. I bought the other books in the series immediately after reading this!!
My only real grumble is the women act more like young debutantes than the older spinsters they are portrayed as – otherwise the story’s twists and turns pleasantly surprise you toward a lovely ending.
Great good read
It was surprisingly unpredictable because I thought it would be the typical romance like bad boy meets good girl and bad boy falls for good girl and changes his ways but no. Bad boy falls for good girl and tries to change his ways (and in a lot of ways he does!) but good girl won’t let him in a way. Good girl has a secret bad girl streak and the streak becomes more and more apparent as the days go on. Bad boy becomes troubled by her bad side but also enthralled and enticed and he just loves her. All of her. Imagine this plot in a historical setting…woah.
enjoyed it as an easy read – characters interesting though the hero was a little under developed in my opinion for his backstory
My kind of book!
Better than some novels of this genre. Characters were a little better defined.
Steamy love scenes lots of moments of what happens next?
Keeps you up at night reading
Nice twist to the story but the writing style was not engaging. Very draw out. Could have been shorter
AUDIO REVIEW
Another enjoyable historical listen! I really love Madeleine and Ferguson are such a great match right from the beginning! She is basically a spinster and he wants her to help debut his younger sisters. Then he finds out that she is an actress using a stage name so no one knows that it is her. He helps her keep the secret. And this Duke that had no intentions of ever getting married or even staying in London, falls in love with the spinster….. and then he has to convince her to marry him… He got super swoony there after he “ruined” her. I do think that I will listen to the next book in the series.
Story
Spice
Swoon
Angst
Narration
Ferguson and Madeleine start out as Employer and Chaperone but this soon changes. Along the way we find out that he was a rake up until he was exiled to Scotland 10 years previously and she is currently performing very successfully on stage, which is a ‘no-no’ for that era.
So they both have things that they are hiding and this story tells us how they both uncover the other’s secrets and how it affects their relationships both with each other and with other family members.
It is a brilliantly written story with careful attention to detail. Many a time I found myself smiling at the antics and carrying ons but I thoroughly enjoyed the book in its entirety.
In addition there are some interesting love scenes and the romancing itself is rather novel.
One is also introduced to family members and other members of the ton who contribute their own background stories that tie in nicely with this main one.
I really did enjoy reading this book and can confidently recommend it and I look forward to reading more by this very talented author.