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turophile 's review for:
The Secret Pearl
by Mary Balogh
I'm reading through [a:Mary Balogh|9759|Mary Balogh|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1267712180p2/9759.jpg] backlist and continuing to find that I enjoy many of her older books more than her newer series (of course it could be that liking what I most recently read phenomenon).
The opening scene to this book was quite jarring. Our heroine, Fleur, has fled to London and can not find employment. She decides that selling her body is the only way she can survive. Her first (and only) customer is a Duke trapped in a loveless, sexless marriage. He treats her with little dignity until it is too late and her realizes that she had been a virgin. Feeling horrified, he arranges the next day for his secretary to find her and hire her as a governess without revealing her employer.
The story proceeds with her serving as governess much to the Duchess' displeasure. Fleur is horrified when she learns that her employer was her first customer. Throughout the book she is traumatized by thinking of herself as a whore.
Some aspects of the book remind me of other regency romance - for example, she was fighting off a suitor and a man is accidentally killed. She flees because she's afraid of being hanged for murder. This running away because I may have killed someone thing is a popular theme - along with the inevitable unwinding of the mystery (though this one has nice twist at the end).
What makes this book somewhat unique is that the hero is married throughout the book. Despite his increasing attraction to Fleur he feels he must remain faithful to the wife, who's quite a witch.
This triangle creates sustained interest throughout the book.
It's not the best Balogh book I've read, but it was definitely enjoyable.
** Rated on my 5 star romance scale
The opening scene to this book was quite jarring. Our heroine, Fleur, has fled to London and can not find employment. She decides that selling her body is the only way she can survive. Her first (and only) customer is a Duke trapped in a loveless, sexless marriage. He treats her with little dignity until it is too late and her realizes that she had been a virgin. Feeling horrified, he arranges the next day for his secretary to find her and hire her as a governess without revealing her employer.
The story proceeds with her serving as governess much to the Duchess' displeasure. Fleur is horrified when she learns that her employer was her first customer. Throughout the book she is traumatized by thinking of herself as a whore.
Some aspects of the book remind me of other regency romance - for example, she was fighting off a suitor and a man is accidentally killed. She flees because she's afraid of being hanged for murder. This running away because I may have killed someone thing is a popular theme - along with the inevitable unwinding of the mystery (though this one has nice twist at the end).
What makes this book somewhat unique is that the hero is married throughout the book. Despite his increasing attraction to Fleur he feels he must remain faithful to the wife, who's quite a witch.
This triangle creates sustained interest throughout the book.
It's not the best Balogh book I've read, but it was definitely enjoyable.
** Rated on my 5 star romance scale