A review by amlibera
The Secret Pearl by Mary Balogh

3.0

Old school Mary Balogh- a lot of old tropes (he's a duke and a wounded vet with a wife that tortures him, she is a virtuous woman driven to prostitution by a conspiracy against her by a "big bad") but the development of the relationship has a reality to it that is mostly satisfying. I found some of the narrative conventions odd (the alternating chapters from opposite povs meant moving forward and backward in time in ways that didn't feel revealing. And the heroine's initial trauma around her one experience with the hero was so significant that his attempts to be kind were disturbing to read.