Books › A Family Secret
A Family Secret
184 pages
A sun-drenched, atmospheric romance where irresistible attraction collides with the gothic shadows of an aristocratic family's past.
What it feels like
Reading this classic romance feels like stepping onto the sun-drenched terrace of a Portuguese estate, where the air is thick with both jasmine and unspoken tension. It delivers the quintessential vintage category romance experience: a brisk, emotionally heightened journey anchored by a brooding, aristocratic hero and a heroine caught in a web of irresistible attraction. The narrative weaves a subtle gothic thread through its glamorous contemporary setting, using the trope of a haunting doppelganger to cast long shadows over the blossoming romance. The prose is lush and earnest, focusing deeply on the internal emotional turmoil of the characters. It is a perfect, escapist read for those who delight in dramatic family secrets, sweeping European vistas, and love stories that must conquer the ghosts of the past to find their happily ever after.
- Mood
- sun-drenched
- shadowed
- tense
- atmospheric
- Tone
- earnest
- melodramatic
- romantic
- suspenseful
- Pace
- brisk
- Themes
- aristocratic secrets · irresistible attraction · haunting pasts · the shadow of another woman · healing through love
- The writing
- Emotionally heightened and vividly descriptive, leaning into the lushness of the setting and the intensity of the characters' internal turmoil.
- The arc
- Moves from a hesitant, magnetic attraction clouded by mystery to a dramatic unearthing of secrets and a deeply romantic resolution.
- Who it's for
- Fans of vintage category romance who crave brooding heroes, glamorous European estates, and a touch of gothic mystery.
Content notes
- family trauma
- grief
About the book
A face from the past...
Catherine had come to the glorious Minho region of Portugal to see her friend Ana married. She never dreamed that she'd find Ana's older brother, Conde Eduardo Barroso, so magnetic--or that she'd be a key player in the drama that Eduardo and Ana's family had kept hidden for years!
There was no doubt that Eduardo found Catherine intriguing, too, but the more she found out about Isabel--her haunting double from Eduardo's past--the more Catherine felt she had to pull away from him and the affair he offered. Or could love really banish the shadows from a family's past?
Description from Open Library.
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