Coralee Whitmore is the daughter of Viscount and
Viscountess of Selkirk. She is happy with her life, living
in London and working as society editor for the ladies
gazette Heart to Heart. After her older, half-sister
Laurel dies in mysterious circumstances, Corrie decides
she must investigate what really happened or she will
never be at peace with the loss. Corrie enlists the help
of her editor and friend, as well as her Aunt and her
cousin, to assume a new identity and go undercover in the
village where Laurel lived right before her death. The
revelation that Laurel had a child, and that that might
have contributed to her apparent suicide, encourages
Corrie to focus on the men living in Castle Tremaine as
her prime suspects. To gain entry to the castle, Corrie
begins her masquerade as Letty Moss the abandoned wife of
a distant cousin who is in need of temporary shelter. The
Earl of Tremaine, Grayson Forsythe, is Corrie's top choice
as most likely to have seduced her sister based solely on
the gossip she's heard about him. Then she gets to know
the true man behind the facade presented to Society.
Corrie doubts that Gray would have appealed to Laurel, not
in the same way Corrie finds him appealing. The more she
learns about Gray, the more she wants to learn about him
and the more Gray wants to learn about her in return.
Corrie wants to reveal her identity to Gray, but not
before figuring out which man in Castle Tremaine might
have been the father of Laurel's child. Her father takes
the decision out of Corrie's hands by coming to claim her
at the Castle. The timing couldn't be worse as Gray and
Corrie have just spent a night together without a chaperon
and are forced to marry. After Gray realizes that Corrie's
accidents might have been attempts on her life, he decides
to do whatever he can to help keep her safe even if it
means questioning the honor of his male relations. Can
Gray and Corrie find the truth by working together? If
they can discover what really happened to Laurel and her
child, what will that mean to their marriage? Will there
still be a marriage?
This is the second book in the proposed 'Heart' Trilogy.
There is something slightly childlike in the description
of ladies gazette Heart to Heart that could be less than
appealing to all readers and some of Corrie's explanations
for her actions seem weak. The strength of this book is
the growth of Gray into a truly three-dimensional, likable
character as well as the secondary characters who are
involved in the mystery surrounding the death of Laurel
and her child.
As a viscount's daughter, vivacious Coralee Whitmore is
perfectly placed to write about London's elite in the
outspoken ladies' gazette, Heart to Heart. But beneath her
fashionable exterior beats the heart of a serious
journalist.
So when her sister's death is dismissed as
suicide, Corrie vows to uncover the truth, suspecting the
notorious Earl of Tremaine was Laurel's lover and the
father of her illegitimate child. Corrie infiltrates Castle
Tremaine posing as a wide-eyed country relation whose
charming figure- and reduced circumstances-make her
irresistible to the confirmed scoundrel. But Corrie finds
the earl is not all he seems?nor is she immune to his
charms, however much she despises his caddish ways.
Far
from a society column, Corrie's life soon reads more like
one of Mr. Dickens's serials. But the danger of her ruse is
hardly fictional: someone is bent on ensuring Corrie's
questions go unanswered-and unasked.