Secrets of the Night [Mass Market Paperback]

The hero and heroine in this story are not as temperamental as those in other stories, but this is in line with the personality of the main male character, being more phlematic than his other flamboyant siblings, and is not a draw back to the story. I did have a problem with the ease with which the heroine got the hero into bed (he just recovering from a serious poisoning!) but it didn't detract from my enjoyment of the book. I have read many other romances by other authors with VERY implausible plot devices. Jo Beverly has written in many styles depending on the era she is writing about. She ALWAYS tells an interesting, compelling story, literately written with no glaring grammatical errors or obvious anacronisms to wrench the reader from the fantasy. She doesn't write a "standard" historical romance (trite, cliched), but makes her characters believable people reacting realistically (usually) to their circumstances.

This book also gives the reader a glimpse of the plot line which will occur in the fifth book with the most powerful and flamboyant of the siblings, Beowulf Malloren, Marquess of Rothgar.

I have followed her writing since her first in the "Rogues" regency series and have been actively trying to find all her other books since then. She is almost impossible to find in used book stores, which tells you the popularity she enjoys with readers.

Happy reading!

Where I got hung up in the book was in Brands easy capitulation to his masked lady's request for sex in payment for saving his life. It was not the fact that he was willing to accomodate a stranger, this is after all historical fiction and a Georgian at that. It's just that, in his shoes, having been drugged, suffering from memory loss, and finding myself locked in a room in a strange house with a woman who won't remove her mask and who "claims" to have saved my life I would have been a lot more wary. He was way too trusting and he did pay for it later.

In 1762 Wenscote, her elderly spouse pleads with Rosamunde Overton to find some stud to impregnate her for the good of their people since he is incapable of doing so. He worries that if no heir is born to them, the estate goes to his nephew. The lad would simply hand the property over to his rigid religious order. Taking to heart her spouse's desires, Rosamunde sets a plan in motion. However, on her way home from a failed attempt to select a suitable hunk at a masquerade party, Rosamunde finds an unconscious person. Rosamunde decides he will sire her child.

An ailing Lord Brand Malloran agrees to assist his unknown angel, who wears a mask while they are together. They make love and both find their hearts captured by the other. However, he now wants more, but she fears to give into his demands. As she flees back to the safety of her home, he begins to search for the love of a lifetime.

Jo Beverly is clearly not a secret amidst romance readers and her latest tale, THE SECRETS OF THE NIGHT, typifies why her books are so loved. The story line never stops hooking readers from start to finish. However, as is usual with a Ms. Beverly fiction, the characters run the show. The lead protagonists are a witty duo struggling for something that seems just outside their grasps. The support cast adds much period piece authenticity as they move the plot to its stirring conclusion. Ms. Beverly continues the magic of the Mallorans with this delightful romp.

Harriet Klausner