"Engaging historical romance"

In 1831 King William sends Adrian Burchard to bring Sophia Raughley back to England though she feels her home is in Paris after eight years there. However, with the death of her estranged father, Sophia inherits the Duchy of Everdom. This means among other things she is considered now a key political person because she controls several rotten borough representatives in the House of Commons including her escort.

Adrian first meets Sophia when she is almost unconscious during an orgy. An artist stud that she sponsors slipped her a knock-out drug so that he could have sex with her even if she is out cold, but Adrian stops him. Taking advantage of her claim that she is married, Adrian says he is her spouse and demands that her sponsored artists must stay away from her. Adrian forces Sophia to return with him, but quickly finds himself in love with a woman he thought was a crazy nymphomaniac. She falls in love with her escort who she thinks is a pawn of the rich and famous starting with Wellington.

As she did with THE SEDUCER and THE SAINT, Madeline Hunter provides her audience with an engaging historical romance that uses historical tidbits to bring alive the era and to enhance the lead couple, especially their relationship. Once Adrian arrives on the scene with his first impressions, the novel moves rather quickly forward as the twosome argue over just about everything except love. Madeline Hunter provides a delightful tale that will please her myriad of fans who can look forward to a sinful encore.

Harriet Klausner

Reviewed by Harriet Klausner
Posted November 24, 2003

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Summary

Their first meeting is not promising. Sent by the king to bring the Sophia Raughley home, Adrian Burchard finds her in another man's arms, at an orgy that includes the young artists who form her entourage. He soon discovers, however, that this errant daughter of the nobility hides secrets and wounds beneath her mask of frivolity, and possesses a vulnerable sensuality that draws him like no other woman has.

Sophia resents this man who high-handedly interferes with her life—a life in which she hides from the past. Worse, he seems to offer an intimacy that she dare not accept—until the night when he skillfully seduces her, peeling away the defenses to her heart as artfully as he does the layers of her clothing. As Sophia falls under the spell of his erotic charms, and Adrian finds himself unable to resist her passionate response, they embark on a dangerous affair. An affair that will either destroy them both, or prove the one thing that can save them when mysteries from the past reach out to entangle the present.