by Marcia, guest reviewer
Constantine Huxtable is thinking about taking his next spring mistress. He takes one every year, usually one of the many widows that are available. He ends these affairs in the summer when he returns to the country. There is no shortage of women eager for his company despite the fact that he is only a ‘Mister’. He is looking for someone elegant and poised enough to be seen with him, intelligent enough to hold a decent conversation and, of course, discreet.
The notorious Hannah Reid, Duchess of Dunbarton, has decided to take a lover. She has finished her year of mourning after ten years of marriage to a man old enough to be her grandfather and who has left her extremely wealthy. She wants a more vivid life. She wants a lover who is devilishly attractive, wickedly skillful in bed and has no heart to break. She is looking for someone who is a challenge to control, masterful and hopefully in the end, devoted. She knows exactly who she wants…Constantine Huxtable.
Constantine is not enthusiastic when the Duchess makes her interest known. Why would he want an ice princess? She always wears white with a lot of diamond jewelry and a half smiling, provocative expression. Lord knows, she is beautiful with wavy platinum blond hair that is so light that it is almost white, large blue eyes and a slender but curvaceous figure, but she is arrogant, shallow, vain and …desirable. He assumes, like the rest of society, that she was unfaithful to her husband during his final years with one or all of the men who served as her escorts when her husband was too frail to attend the various social events of the season. He finds adultery vaguely distasteful. Despite his misgivings and much to his family’s distress, he finds himself drawn to her. So begins a discreet but not at all secret affair between Devil and the Duchess.
Readers who are familiar with Seducing an Angel, will see a number of similar plot elements in A Secret Affair. Both books feature women who have been widowed after ten years of marriage; both widows have childhood friends who disapprove of their affairs. Even Stephen Huxtable notes that he met his own wife in the park and teases Constantine that perhaps Constantine is fated to marry the Duchess after they both encounter the Duchess there. However, Constantine is his own man and A Secret Affair is his own love story.
Like many of Mary Balogh’s stories, there is no real antagonist. The tension is created as the lovers struggle with their own negative personality traits, misconceptions, and fears. In Constantine’s words, they have to “work at finding and building love”. As a result of this approach, the characters are complex, multi-layered and real. Unlike Seducing an Angel, there is no spiritual thread, but there are some philosophical musings about the illusion of time and an unseen hand guiding the characters to their purpose and joy. Balogh shows real technical artistry when, just as we think the love story is coming to a satisfying conclusion, she introduces a plot element that exposes the cruelty of Regency England in its attitudes towards the mentally handicapped. Then Hannah Reid, the Duchess of Dunbarton, in an effort right a wrong, reveals a secret affair.
Rating: 5 Stars
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This post was written by...
Marcia – who has written 23 posts on Love Romance Passion.
Marcia loves historicals, gloms them in fact, and she will and does buy them by the dozens for her bookshelves. Books are everywhere! And that's just how she likes it.
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
I love A secret Affiar by Mary Balogh
BEST BOOK EVER!!!
I meant Affair
No worries! We love you anyway – good spelling or bad spelling.