Books › Angel in Scarlet
Angel in Scarlet
600 pages
A sweeping, theatrical journey of heartbreak, reinvention, and an all-consuming passion that refuses to die.
What it feels like
Reading this book feels like stepping into a lush, theatrical time capsule of vintage romance. It sweeps you up in a brisk, tempestuous current of high drama, opulent London society, and fierce emotional survival. The prose is unapologetically grand and emotive, painting a vivid portrait of a heroine who claws her way from heartbreak to the glittering heights of the stage. The mood is steeped in a nostalgic, swoony melodrama, where passions run high and every glance is laden with destiny. It is a perfect escape for readers who crave the sweeping, rags-to-riches sagas of the 1980s, delivering a deeply satisfying emotional arc of enduring love, fierce ambition, and the intoxicating thrill of a second chance at a soul-branding romance.
- Mood
- swoony
- opulent
- tempestuous
- nostalgic
- Tone
- melodramatic
- passionate
- sweeping
- earnest
- Pace
- brisk
- Themes
- first love and heartbreak · social reinvention · enduring passion · class divides · theatrical ambition
- The writing
- Lush, descriptive, and highly emotive, leaning into the grand theatricality of 1980s historical romance.
- The arc
- From naive heartbreak and fierce survival to triumphant success and the tumultuous rekindling of an all-consuming first love.
- Who it's for
- Fans of vintage historical sagas who love rags-to-riches theatrical heroines and tempestuous, angsty love stories.
Content notes
- period-typical sexism
- class prejudice
- mild dub-con
About the book
Angela Howard was the toast of London -- a breathtaking vision every woman envied and every man longed to possess. Few would have dreamed this violet-eyed beauty was the precocious child of a country schoolmaster... the feisty girl who had spurned Lord Clinton Meredith, the "fairy tale prince", to surrender her innocence to Hugh Bradford, his illegitimate brother... the young woman who had come to London with nothing but a broken heart -- and a fierce determination to survive.
Now she was a celebrated actress; immortalized on canvas by Gainsborough; adored by Jamie Lambert, the playwright who made her his star; desired by the golden-haired lord obsessed with making her his lady... and still tormented with longing for the man who had branded her very soul with his passion, and who has now returned to reawaken past splendors of a love he means to reclaim....
Description from Open Library.
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