The man she once loved… …is back–to claim her? Rosalind is surprised to find Ash Hartfield–the man she eloped with seven years ago–on her doorstep! She’d felt betrayed by his abrupt departure to India following the revelations of their wedding night. Seeing him again still gives her butterflies–but a lot has changed…not least that he’s a duke now! What will he do when he discovers her … when he discovers her secret–that he has an heir?
“A forbidden kiss, a feisty heiress and a family divided by secrets, make this Regency romance an entertaining read”
— Goodreads on A Wedding for the Scandalous Heiress by Elizabeth Beacon
“Beacon’s talents for evoking deep emotions with admirable characters, witty dialogue and sensuality shine once again”
— RT Book Reviews on A Wedding for the Scandalous Heiress by Elizabeth Beacon
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The Duchess’s Secret
Elizabeth Beacon
Release date 09/01/2019
Publisher Harlequin Historical
https://www.harlequin.com/shop/authors/24795_elizabeth-beacon.html
Blurb :
The man she once loved…
…is back—to claim her?
Rosalind is surprised to find Ash Hartfield—the man she eloped with seven years ago—on her doorstep! She’d felt betrayed by his abrupt departure to India following the revelations of their wedding night. Seeing him again still gives her butterflies—but a lot has changed…not least that he’s a duke now! What will he do when he discovers her secret—that he has an heir?
My review:
Can a newly titled duke redeem his way and be forgiven by the wife he left behind.
I curse Harlequin Historical for releasing its six new stories every mont, always on the same day. As it is how I got books forgotten and left unread on my kindle shelves.
Just today, I had two preordered.
As I didn’t know which one read first, I just picked the one first downloaded.
I just loved it and swallowed it in a record time.
The first chapter sets the pace and mood of this moving tale.
Rosalind is a wonderful heroine. So strong and lucid of what to expect from life, she is no doormat to her coward of a husband. She is not perfect but to me she did nothing wrong in not advertising her runaway groom she was pregnant, after all he was the one whom left behind a young woman of eighteen.
I might say I was angry at Ash most of the book, I wanted his to get a good set down and to grovel on a gravel filled path from India to England …
I know I am bloodthirsty!
The young Rosalind felt guilty while confessing her secret when she should not have been, she is the victim here. Abused and abandoned. And when the one man, she put her trust in to reveal her past wound, whom should have been the shoulder on which she could have reposed her head on, left her, she was betrayed a second time. Instead of being a loyal lover, for a man in love, he easily turned his coat, he judged and condemned her as everyone in London society, throwing opprobrium like everyone and hurting her even more in the process.
He deserved a lot more than having missed the first years of his child, he so easily failed the one woman he pledged eternal love until do part us, thinking the worst of her without a second thought about what she endured.
Rosalind sucked all the oxygen in this story, she sort of glowed with her resilient character, having given up everything for her daughter, ready to battle for her. She put her own conditions before going back to her so-easily-mislead and unfaithful of a husband’s company.
He thought he could snap his fingers and she would jump back in the marriage bed.
I loved she has needs but didn’t listen to them just because he is back. She has feelings but does not let them take the best of her. She is so strong and tough, she had to rebuilt herself after everything she went through, even refusing others help. Prideful for sure, as she also knows the cost she had to pay for her freedom, but she won’t now settle for half step.
The side characters like Joan and Jenny brightened this poignant tale. But It is no sad narrative, much more a composition about the tenacity and courage of one woman when adversity stroke.
A big fat 5 stars.
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