Miss Claudia Martin realizes society views her as a
failure, since she has not married or had children.
Instead, Claudia has spent 15 years building Miss Martin's
School for Young Ladies into a successful business. After a
disastrous love affair in her youth with a member of the
peer, Claudia's disdain for aristocrats has grown and she's
turned her ambitions to educating young women. When the
Marquess of Attingsborough arrives at her school at the
request of a mutual friend to take Claudia to London on
business, she feels uncomfortable in his presence. This
makes no sense to Claudia, since she's regarded as a stern
and starchy schoolmistress who's intimidated by no one.
Joseph, the Marquess of Attingsborough and heir to a
dukedom, has always accepted his responsibilities. When his
father picked a woman for him with perfect bloodlines and
social graces, Joseph agreed. Duty and honor means he must
try to fall in love with his father's choice, Miss Portia
Hunt. After several encounters with Portia, Joseph feels a
nagging doubt. Portia is rigid and refuses to veer from the
strict social morals. This presents a problem because
Joseph has one item in his life that he will not abandon.
After several social encounters, Joseph and Claudia become
friends. That friendship disrupts Claudia's feeling of
comfort with her loneliness. Remembered dreams long ago put
aside return. Joseph tries to show her that life is not
perfect, but they can have perfect moments together.
Courageous choices must be made if perfect moments are to
endure.
Over the years, in her many wonderful stories, Mary
Balogh has perfected the Regency romance. In SIMPLY
PERFECT, she incorporates the rigid social classes and
morality in an emotional and complex love story filled with
intense grief and joy. Her indelible characters stay with
readers, as will Claudia and Joseph as they struggle with
dilemmas that will change the direction of their lives.
SIMPLY PERFECT is a superb conclusion to the Simply series.
Set against the seductive backdrop of Regency England,
New York Times bestselling author Mary Balogh’s
latest novel sweeps us into the sensual, enthralling world
of an elite academy for young ladies. Here, amid music
lessons and garden parties, whispered confessions and secret
yearnings, one of the school’s teachers—headmistress Claudia
Martin—will find her well-ordered world jolted by love when
she meets a man who would make the perfect husband…for
somebody else.
Tall, dark, and exquisitely sensual,
he is the epitome of male perfection. Not that Claudia
Martin is looking for a lover. Or a husband. As owner and
headmistress of Miss Martin’s School for Girls in Bath, she
long ago resigned herself to a life without love. Until
Joseph, Marquess of Attingsborough, arrives unannounced and
tempts her to toss away a lifetime of propriety for an
affair that can only lead to ruin.
Joseph has his own
reasons for seeking Claudia out. Instantly, irresistibly
attracted to the dedicated teacher, he embarks on a plan of
seduction that leaves them both yearning for more. But as
heir to a prestigious dukedom, Joseph is expected to carry
on his family’s legacy. And Claudia knows she has no place
in his world.
Now that world is about to be rocked by
scandal. An arranged marriage, a secret that will shock the
ton, and a man from Claudia’s past conspire to drive
the lovers apart. But Joseph is determined to make Claudia
his at any cost. Even if that means defying convention and
breaking every rule for a love that is everything he has
ever wanted—a love that is perfection itself…
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