Rating: 
Summary: An Intense Read
Review: A Regency about a young innocent woman running from a covetous relative, forced out of desperation to sell herself into prostition on the streets of London. How could she know that she'd pick exactly the right person for her first customer, or rather, that he would pick her? Later hired by an unknown benefactor as his daughter's governess, she's shocked to discover it's the one man who knows about her past. But she doesn't understand what he now wants from her. Will he force her to become his mistress - the mistress of a married man? This book is an intense, rather heavy read with complicated characters and a hero with a bit of a martyr complex. I found the man almost too good, but he was someone you'd want at your back. The heroine was smart and independent. The story didn't dumb the characters down, nor obviously force situations to work a certain way. I felt the pain of their impossible love and was glad it was a romance, and would therefore have a happy ending!
Rating:
Summary: An Intense Read
Review: A Regency about a young innocent woman running from a covetous relative, forced out of desperation to sell herself into prostition on the streets of London. How could she know that she'd pick exactly the right person for her first customer, or rather, that he would pick her? Later hired by an unknown benefactor as his daughter's governess, she's shocked to discover it's the one man who knows about her past. But she doesn't understand what he now wants from her. Will he force her to become his mistress - the mistress of a married man? This book is an intense, rather heavy read with complicated characters and a hero with a bit of a martyr complex. I found the man almost too good, but he was someone you'd want at your back. The heroine was smart and independent. The story didn't dumb the characters down, nor obviously force situations to work a certain way. I felt the pain of their impossible love and was glad it was a romance, and would therefore have a happy ending!
Rating:
Summary: So Close to Five Stars
Review: I actually wanted to rate this book as a 4 ½ star read. I loved it - couldn't put it down and was up to the wee hours finishing it - truly a mark of a great story. However, I did have a few issues with the characters that held it back from a full five stars. The plot is unique. The heroine, Fleur has reached a desperate state and is left with no other course than to sell her body for the few coins needed to buy food and pay the rent on her slum-level room. Depending on how you look at it, by either bad luck or incredibly good luck, her first and only customer is Adam, Duke of Raybourne. Suffering his own emotional and physical scars, Adam initiates Fleur into the art of sex with no awareness and therefore no consideration toward her inexperience, leaving her in agony both mentally and physically. Out of his guilt, Adam arranges for Fleur to serve as his daughter's governess. Over the course of several weeks spent at his home, Willoughby, Adam finds himself drawn more and more to Fleur even as she continues to fear him. But when Fleur finds her past catching up to her, she is surprised to discover not only an ally in Adam but a comfort as well. As I said, I loved the story, and for the most part, I loved both the hero and heroine. But a few issues kept me from giving this book a five star rating. First of all, I found Adam far too forgiving and accepting of his wife and her disrespect for him as her husband. While I admire his determination to honor his marriage vows, he teetered on the edge of doormat for me because he suffered so much with little defense for himself, willing to sacrifice his own life and happiness for a woman who was far from deserving of such a man. And honestly, I thought that Adam didn't need the scars he'd received during Waterloo to make him a haunted and tormented hero. He had enough emotional baggage from his dysfunctional marriage that his physical disfigurements seemed almost over-the-top. In fact, I would have like to see Adam as a very handsome man who constantly fought off the attentions of women because he felt honor-bound to his wife. I found Fleur a bit too passive for me. She endured unwanted advances from more than one character with no complaint, and at a crucial point in the story, she fled when she should have remained, causing herself more pain and worry. Granted, her history and situation did much to show us how trapped she was and how powerless to help herself. Her motives for prostituting herself were sound, and I admired her spunk in not giving up. I just wish she'd had a little more fire rather than resigned acceptance of the hand fate had dealt her. I agree very much with SJM's review regarding Fleur's continual feelings toward Adam. While I completely understand her initial revulsion and fear, the fact that these feelings continued through a good healthy portion of the story set me to wondering if these two would ever find a loving place. Then, when her feelings did turn, it was rather sudden and abrupt. Kind of like a light switch. I would have preferred a more gradual thaw that progressed a bit more rapidly. All that being said, the romance between these two characters was excellently drawn. The sexual tension was at a fever pitch, and I really wanted these two to find happiness with each other. Too, within some of the least sexually intense scenes I've ever read in romance novels (kissing only), I felt an incredible heat between Adam and Fleur. A romance of epic proportions, I really ached for them when they were separated. Add to this the fact that I couldn't put the book down, I do highly recommend it. A fabulous read all the way around.
Rating:
Summary: So Close to Five Stars
Review: I actually wanted to rate this book as a 4 ½ star read. I loved it - couldn't put it down and was up to the wee hours finishing it - truly a mark of a great story. However, I did have a few issues with the characters that held it back from a full five stars. The plot is unique. The heroine, Fleur has reached a desperate state and is left with no other course than to sell her body for the few coins needed to buy food and pay the rent on her slum-level room. Depending on how you look at it, by either bad luck or incredibly good luck, her first and only customer is Adam, Duke of Raybourne. Suffering his own emotional and physical scars, Adam initiates Fleur into the art of sex with no awareness and therefore no consideration toward her inexperience, leaving her in agony both mentally and physically. Out of his guilt, Adam arranges for Fleur to serve as his daughter's governess. Over the course of several weeks spent at his home, Willoughby, Adam finds himself drawn more and more to Fleur even as she continues to fear him. But when Fleur finds her past catching up to her, she is surprised to discover not only an ally in Adam but a comfort as well. As I said, I loved the story, and for the most part, I loved both the hero and heroine. But a few issues kept me from giving this book a five star rating. First of all, I found Adam far too forgiving and accepting of his wife and her disrespect for him as her husband. While I admire his determination to honor his marriage vows, he teetered on the edge of doormat for me because he suffered so much with little defense for himself, willing to sacrifice his own life and happiness for a woman who was far from deserving of such a man. And honestly, I thought that Adam didn't need the scars he'd received during Waterloo to make him a haunted and tormented hero. He had enough emotional baggage from his dysfunctional marriage that his physical disfigurements seemed almost over-the-top. In fact, I would have like to see Adam as a very handsome man who constantly fought off the attentions of women because he felt honor-bound to his wife. I found Fleur a bit too passive for me. She endured unwanted advances from more than one character with no complaint, and at a crucial point in the story, she fled when she should have remained, causing herself more pain and worry. Granted, her history and situation did much to show us how trapped she was and how powerless to help herself. Her motives for prostituting herself were sound, and I admired her spunk in not giving up. I just wish she'd had a little more fire rather than resigned acceptance of the hand fate had dealt her. I agree very much with SJM's review regarding Fleur's continual feelings toward Adam. While I completely understand her initial revulsion and fear, the fact that these feelings continued through a good healthy portion of the story set me to wondering if these two would ever find a loving place. Then, when her feelings did turn, it was rather sudden and abrupt. Kind of like a light switch. I would have preferred a more gradual thaw that progressed a bit more rapidly. All that being said, the romance between these two characters was excellently drawn. The sexual tension was at a fever pitch, and I really wanted these two to find happiness with each other. Too, within some of the least sexually intense scenes I've ever read in romance novels (kissing only), I felt an incredible heat between Adam and Fleur. A romance of epic proportions, I really ached for them when they were separated. Add to this the fact that I couldn't put the book down, I do highly recommend it. A fabulous read all the way around.
Rating: 
Summary: 10 Stars for this one!
Review: I had meant, for a long time, to write a little review of this incredible, seemingly perfect Balogh novel but did not get round to it. WMR-UK has really said everything I would have done so I would just like to say to anyone who loves heart-wrenching, stylishly written, character-driven, immaculately plotted fiction - do not miss this one. Once read, it will stay with you for ever after. This is a story of two lonely, hurt people reaching out as best they can in the sad circumstances of their lives towards each other in an effort to find love, solace and completeness. The reader gains immense satisfaction in watching them achieve this. I agree with WMR-UK -- I wouldn't part with my copy either -- it's firmly on the keeper shelf and I've read it more than once. Mary Balogh is simply one of the very best writers around for the Regency period and she rarely disappoints.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent, Poignant Story of Seemingly Impossible Love!
Review: I really love it when a historical romance author can break the "rules" of the genre and make it work, and Mary Balogh definitely does that with "A Secret Pearl". This is a great book (a read-all-night, can't-put-the-!#*&@-book-down-to-feed-the-kids type of book).
The hero of the book is Adam, the Duke of Raybourne, a veteran of Waterloo and a man who is scarred both physically and emotionally. Exiting the theater one evening, he notices a quiet, pathetic-looking prostitute and impulsively engages her for the night--not realizing that this is her first night on the job. Unaware of her inexperience, unnerved by her silence and angry at himself for hiring a prostitute, Adam treats Fleur roughly and ends up hurting her. When he realizes that she is a gentlewoman who has been driven to prostitution by poverty and desperation, he initially feeds her and overpays her and then later sends his secretary to find her and offer her a job as his young daughter's governess.
Fleur is thrilled to get the job until she realizes the her employer is the man who once treated her so callously and still haunts her nightmares. She is worried that he has only brought her down to his estate to make her his mistress and is horrified at the prospect.
It takes a very bold and talented author to create a physically scarred, *married* hero and a heroine who begins as a prostitute and to make the reader care about them so deeply. Instead of the philandering creep that he initially appears to be, Adam is almost *too* honorable and self-sacrificing--a man living as well as he is able with the broken dreams of his youth, and Fleur is a courageous but vulnerable heroine. The characters of both Adam and Fleur are complex, well-drawn and believable and their unlikely romance is beautifully developed and truly *romantic*. Some of the secondary characters are well-drawn as well, especially Adam's daughter and his valet. In contrast, the villains of the story are a bit more one-note. Adam's wife, Sybil, is portrayed as a selfish, shockingly ungrateful b****, Adam's brother is an amoral cad and Fleur's nemesis, her cousin, is an obsessed lecher. As usual for a Mary Balogh book, the story is very well-written with never a false note in the plot or dialogue (except perhaps Adam's seemingly endless patience with his incredibly annoying wife!)
This is angsty romance at its best and a must-read for anyone who loves Mary Balogh. "A Secret Pearl" is a romance novel, so I was pretty sure that it was going to have a happy end, but I found myself fretting anyways as the final pages spun out.
*Very* highly recommended!
Rating: 
Summary: I'm in the minority here!
Review: I would rate this Mary Balogh no higher than 3 stars. I wish I knew what it is about Balogh, that I can only read & enjoy her short Signet Regency novels (Tempting Harriet, The Temporary Wife, etc.), but when I try to read her longer works (the "Slightly" series, etc.) she falls flat (for me). This is one of her longer romances (although still a Signet Regency), and I didn't like it! I thought Fleur's disgust & fear of Adam, while completely understandable given their first encounter, were emphasized for too long, and thus I never believed her falling into love/sexual attraction to him at the end. I also felt Adam should have been more take-charge with his wife, and there should have been a scene of him kicking his brother's ass. Come on, ladies, the scenes where Adam keeps offering to call another dr. for his obviously consumptive wife, and she keeps refusing (I believe there are five times that he asks)-- it would have made me admire him more if he had just brought the damn dr. to her instead of constantly asking if she wanted him to!!! And couldn't he have at least given his brother a good strong put-down, verbally? No, he just lets him sleep with his wife and never reproaches either of them...he "understands"! Aaagh! It wasn't making me sympathetic to him, it just wasn't REAL! I never felt that Fleur "took off" as a heroine, she seemed too bland & insipid to me. All in all, pretty disappointed with this one.
Rating:
Summary: I'm in the minority here!
Review: I would rate this Mary Balogh no higher than 3 stars. I wish I knew what it is about Balogh, that I can only read & enjoy her short Signet Regency novels (Tempting Harriet, The Temporary Wife, etc.), but when I try to read her longer works (the "Slightly" series, etc.) she falls flat (for me). This is one of her longer romances (although still a Signet Regency), and I didn't like it! I thought Fleur's disgust & fear of Adam, while completely understandable given their first encounter, were emphasized for too long, and thus I never believed her falling into love/sexual attraction to him at the end. I also felt Adam should have been more take-charge with his wife, and there should have been a scene of him kicking his brother's ass. Come on, ladies, the scenes where Adam keeps offering to call another dr. for his obviously consumptive wife, and she keeps refusing (I believe there are five times that he asks)-- it would have made me admire him more if he had just brought the damn dr. to her instead of constantly asking if she wanted him to!!! And couldn't he have at least given his brother a good strong put-down, verbally? No, he just lets him sleep with his wife and never reproaches either of them...he "understands"! Aaagh! It wasn't making me sympathetic to him, it just wasn't REAL! I never felt that Fleur "took off" as a heroine, she seemed too bland & insipid to me. All in all, pretty disappointed with this one.
Rating:
Summary: Poignant, heartwrenching, passionate love story
Review: Several friends had given me raving reviews of this book, so I was a little afraid to have too many expectations and be disappointed. I shouldn't have! This was no doubt one of the most enthralling novels I've ever read -- I was still up at 4 am last night trying to finish it, because it is impossible to put it down once you start this book. The story starts with a difficult, raw scene of a man using the services of a prostitute in a seedy London hotel. For the first time since he married, Adam Kent, Duke of Ridgeway, is being unfaithful and giving in to the temptation of needs that his wife doesn't fulfil. He hadn't planned to hire the girl's services, but something beyond his own understanding beckons him to her that night. Fleur was once a Lady, until dreadful events forced her to run away from her home and left her alone and without resources. That night, selling her body is the last choice she has. She accepts her fate with courage and doesn't even flinch or show her disgust towards her customer's badly scarred body or his emotionless treatment. It's too late when Adam Kent realises that Fleur was a virgin who is selling her body as the only alternative to starvation. Moved by what poverty can lead to, the Duke orders his secretary to find Fleur and offer her a post as his daughter's governess. So it is a surprised and suddenly hopeful Fleur who settles in Willoughby a few days later, unaware that her new employer is her one and only customer. And for a couple of weeks, she allows herself to relax and put both the heavy secrets that sent her away from her home and the dreadful night in London to the back of her mind... until the Duke comes home and she discovers the truth of his identity. It's difficult to put into words what is so exceptional about The Secret Pearl. It's amazing that someone who appears like an anti-hero in the beginning of the book, a careless man who pays the services of a prostitute despite his married state, and treats her with so much contempt at first, turns out to be a vulnerable, tender, loving and romantic hero. We progressively discover a man who has been badly scarred by life, not just physically but also emotionally, and who still puts his loved ones' happiness before his own. We fear for Fleur when she's cornered, caught between what made her run from her home and the secret that links her to Adam. Her fear of him, seen both through her eyes and Adam's, is remarkably real. The change of feelings between Fleur and Adam, whom she sees as the brutal man who took her virginity in her nightmares, then as the only person who can save her from losing herself completely, flows very naturally until it culminates in one of the most poignant love scenes I've ever read. I had been impressed by several books by Mary Balogh before, but this one is simply outstanding. If you're a fan of tearjerky romances, The Secret Pearl is a must-read... and must-re-read. :)
Rating:
Summary: Splendid but not Phenomenal. ** Grade: A- **
Review: THE SECRET PEARL is a Signet SUPER Regency story -- SUPER meaning small font and 347 pages. It is a story charged with hidden secrets, which is how Mary Balogh lures her reader. The story's major strength -- the writing - Mary Balogh can write a story. The story's major weakness - the length -- repetition prowls.
Gently born, Isabella Fleur Bradshaw has a secret -- a terrible secret. She flees her sheltered country life and seeks refuge in London. To survive - she sells all that she owns -- her body. Her first customer is the wealthiest lord in England, the scarred and bitter Duke of Ridgeway.
Adam Kent, the Duke of Ridgeway, approaches the common street harlot, his marriage is essentially non-existent, yet the sin of adultery threatens. Furthermore, the duke is angry. He is angry with his own weakness, and angry with the strumpet's strength. He is angry that he feels self-conscious and ashamed, and angry she shows no revulsion. So angry is Kent, the Duke of Ridgeway, that he brandishes brute force as he takes her.
Now Adam Kent feels guilt. He is unable to rid his mind of the girl's thin body, her dark-circled eyes, or her calm courage. He now feels responsible and sets the course -- Fleur will become his daughter's governess. All is well, until the duke returns to his country estate -- to his wife, to his daughter, and to the governess . . .
Overall: an excellent story. Mary Balogh can draw a tale. She knows how to set a scene, she knows how to create a ghastly villain, and best of all she knows how to play her reader. This author can hold a reader with her heart-rending words and THE SECRET PEARL has an abundant supply of gentle, touching words. Nevertheless, it is the length and the demand to fill this story that IS a problem. Therefore, THE SECRET PEARL is classified as a splendid read, although it is not one of Balogh's phenomenal reads. Grade: A-
Reviewer for: www.romancedesigns.com
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