July 22, 2019
Putney’s exciting fourth Rogues Redeemed Regency series (after Once a Scoundrel) contrasts harsh trauma with sweet domesticity. Suzanne Duval is living in a London boardinghouse when Col. Simon Duval, a cousin of her late husband, arrives at her home. Simon learned from a friend that Suzanne was recently rescued from a harem in Turkey and might need his help. He’s dismayed to discover her reduced circumstances and offers Suzanne a marriage of companionship, asserting that he no longer wants physical intimacy. Suzanne agrees to marry Simon, believing that the abuses she suffered in the harem have likewise destroyed all her intimate desires. When Simon learns that his cousin, Lucas Mandeville, previously believed to be dead, was possibly spotted in Belgium, the newlyweds travel there to search for him. Soon they’re caught up in spying, Napoleon’s return sparks renewed warfare, and Simon is torn between duty and the happiness he has discovered with Suzanne. Putney’s dramatic historical is filled with scintillating romance and tense danger.
