Synopsis
New York Times bestselling author Mary Balogh returns to the elegance and sensuality of Regency England as she continues the enthralling story of four remarkable women- friends and teachers at Miss Martin's School for Girls. At the center of this spellbinding novel is Anne Jewell, a teacher haunted by a scandalous past...until she meets a man who teaches her the most important lesson of all: nothing is simple when it comes to love....
She spies him in the deepening dusk of a Wales evening- a lone figure of breathtaking strength and masculinity, his handsome face branded by a secret pain. For single mother and teacher Anne Jewell, newly arrived with her son at a sprawling estate in Wales on the invitation of an influential friend, Sydnam Butler is a man whose sorrows- and passions- run deeper than she could have ever imagined.
As steward of a remote seaside manor, Sydnam lives a reclusive existence far from the pity and disdain of others. Yet almost from the moment...
Publishers Weekly
With more than her usual panache, Balogh returns to Regency England (Simply Unforgettable) for a satisfying adult love story. Twenty-nine-year-old beauty Anne Jewell is an independent woman: an unwed mother who has found contentment, if not happiness, in her life as a teacher at a girls' school. Sydnam Butler, an aristocrat who lost his eye and right arm in the Peninsula Wars, has achieved a similar peace as the reclusive steward for the Duke of Bewcastle. Through her son's father, Anne is related to the Bewcastle family, which includes her friend Joshua Moore, Marquess of Hallmere, who wants to acknowledge her and her nine-year-old son, David, as kin, despite her stubborn independence. Joshua invites Anne and David to spend the summer at the Bewcastle estate in Wales, where she meets Sydnam. The kindly Bewcastle clan have matchmaking in mind, but with scars both surface and deep, will Anne and Sydnam be able to open up to each other? And if so, can they hope for any real happiness? The maturity of the novel's protagonists-who grow from their difficulties and triumphs-distinguishes this romance for the genre. (Aug.) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.