Secrets of a Scandalous Marriage: Secret Brides Series, Book 3

Valerie Bowman is a gifted author who delivers a Regency love story that will captivate your imagination, transport you to a bygone era where she will entertain you with, not only a clever plot, but also a passionate romance...... and then leave you begging for her next release.

Kate (a beautiful widowed Duchess) is in prison sadly awaiting her fate for murder but one fateful day she is visited by James (a handsome, wealthy, loveable hero type and a Viscount) and he makes her a proposition - he will help her but in return he wants to publish her scandalous story. However, little does James (aka Lord Perfect) know that his perfect life is about to be radically changed forever when he agrees to harbor the accused murderess.

The H/H will sweep you away into their tumultuous lives where there's instant attraction, a murder to solve and trust to be earned and along their touching journey hearts will heal, bonds will form and emotional barriers will come down leaving desire, passion and love to blossom.... but is the cost too much?

Worth a credit? If you looking for a historical romance that's got loveable characters, snappy witty dialogue, an entertaining plot, passion and a little sex, great secondary characters that add charm to the story and a yummy love story then you too can be up 'til 3 am engrossed and fully immersed in carriages, masked balls, handsome dashing men, picnics in the park, the ton and, of course scandal. For me, I willingly paid the price.

This book started off exciting and immediately sucked me in. James (Lord Perfect) is heart-stoppingly wonderful and Cate is a beauty caught in a terrible plight. Their love is sweet, but tangled, passionate yet resisted. If you want an exciting story of love with beautiful detail, this is your book.

In this third book by Valerie Bowman we get to see Lord Perfect's story as he finds romance, pursues and then discards it only to eventually make peace with his perfection and throw off his perfect mantle to become human like the rest of us and truly fall in love. It's a nice story but not as much fun as her first two books.

The book starts out as the story of a Duchess accused of murdering her husband and half way through the book when we find out who the real murderer is I felt like the whole thing was swept under the carpet and thrown away leaving me feeling a little let down and abandoned as I wondered where the story would go with so much time left. Then I felt like the story floundered from one step to the next making it feel disjointed and broken. It's eventual outcome came back around but it did feel very choppy.

Overall it's a nice story and I gave it four stars because I enjoyed the first two books so much and this one had many returning characters. I highly recommend reading the first two books before taking this one on. This was not my favorite but I do hope she continues to write more books as I have enjoyed Ms. Bowman's other stories very much. It wasn't a bad book by any means but for me it was just OK.

I am so tired of insecure characters that babble on and on about “what if” and “ how can it be?”. UGH! So much so that I began to fast forward listen to the book. Very frustrating! I purchased this book based on reviewer suggestions but I am not impressed. Not sure if the other readers listened to the same story. I think if the story was cut by about three to four it would have been a 4* at best. Read it if you must but prepare yourself for disappointment.

I enjoyed all 3 of these books in this series. Great characters with a couple hot and steamy sex scenes. Not many but there is sex in the book. I really liked Lord Medford and Kate. Again all the characters show up in this book from the first two. I would totally recommend this book along with the 2 previous books.
The narrator did a great job.