Ames‘ review of His Sinful Secret (Notorious Bachelors, Book 3) by Emma Wildes.
Betrothed to one brother, then married to another, Julianne Sutton finds herself a pawn in an unknown game. The enigmatic new Marquess of Longhaven knows all about the art of deception but he’s baffled by innocence. His new wife is trusting, lovely, and utterly bewitching. Imagine his surprise when he discovers that she has secrets of her own. As he battles a ruthless enemy, he quickly learns that love has an entirely different set of rules.
His Sinful Secret
Michael, the Marquess of Longhaven, has been a somewhat enigmatic character in the previous two books. We know he was tortured in the war and that he’s still doing spy-like things even though their country is no longer fighting. At the end of Our Wicked Mistake, Michael told his friends that he was getting married, much to their shock.
What they didn’t know and what we find out is that Michael’s older brother, Harry, was betrothed to Julianne Sutton from when she was a babe. She grew up her whole life knowing she would marry the Marquess of Longhaven, who had always been Harry. But then Harry died and she still has to marry the Marquess, who is now Michael.
Michael, although he had no intention to get married, agrees to go through with the arrangement between his and Julianne’s parents out of guilt. Guilt that he’s still alive, and he also knows his parents will earn a little bit of happiness over his marriage. He’ll do anything to make up the loss of Harry to them. But he doesn’t know Julianne, and he may be surprised by his new young and innocent bride.
His Sinful Secret was another great read from Emma Wildes. I like how we didn’t really know Michael before but what little we did made us assume certain things about him. That he’d be a typical spy that didn’t want to get close to anyone and he’d keep all his secrets close to his chest. And yes, Michael starts off that way, but Julianne reaches into that part of him that wants to be close to someone and I really enjoyed seeing Michael change. And I liked how smart Julianne was. She also wasn’t a predictable naïve little thing and I appreciate that. Well-written characters make me happy. *g*
I really liked Julianne’s secret. And was somewhat happily surprised to Michael’s reaction to her activities leading up to the unveiling of the secret. He doesn’t react the way I expected and I think that’s why Emma’s writing works for me – she writes characters that are adult, mature and communicate with each other. There easily could have been a big misunderstanding, but there wasn’t. Yippee!
I don’t want to give too much of the plot away but know this – I really enjoyed His Sinful Secret and thought it was a good wrap-up to the Notorious Bachelors.
This one gets a 4.5 out of 5 from me. Go read it!
The series:
This book is available from Signet Eclipse. You can buy it here or here in e-format.
You can read more from ~ames~ at Thrifty Reader.
My Lord Scandal – Notorious Bachelors 1
Our Wicked Mistake – Notorious Bachelors 2