Secrets of Seduction
In this entry in her Legendary Lovers series of Wilde family adventures, it’s time for “Beauty and the Beast” to get a Regency England treatment via Jordan’s sparkling skills. Charming and beautiful Lady Skye plants herself on the Earl of Hawkhurst’s front door in a storm, confident he’ll take in a damsel in distress. She has been in love with the Napoleonic Wars hero since she was a child. But he is a scarred and tormented recluse since the death of his wife and child in a castle fire ten years before. Schooled by her Aunt Isabella, Skye is determined to unlock her true mate before he’s scheduled to court and wed another in a marriage of convenience. A subplot brings the couple to Ireland to reunite lovers of a previous generation whose lives have been marred by violence and tragedy.
Lady Skye is a sly, winsome and sanguine beauty in the mold of Jane Austen’s Emma, well-matched by her melancholy Beast from whom she charms laughter that sounds “rusty from disuse.” The narrative moves at a well-clipped pace with both an interesting mystery to solve and a gloomy castle to transform along with the Earl’s heart. These and the sizzling love scenes are bound to keep romance readers enchanted.
