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Once Upon A Scandal
336 pages
A shadowy, high-stakes historical romance where desperate secrets and midnight burglaries ignite a passionate second chance at love.
What it feels like
This historical romance delivers a thrilling blend of midnight espionage and intense emotional reckoning. The narrative moves at a brisk, suspenseful pace, sweeping the reader into a shadowy, gaslit London where desperate choices collide with lingering desires. The atmosphere is thick with tension, balancing the gritty reality of a mother's survival with the opulent danger of aristocratic ballrooms. Its prose is emotionally charged and sensory, leaning into the delicious melodrama of a marriage of convenience turned bitter estrangement. As the characters navigate a web of blackmail and hidden truths, the emotional arc shifts from cold resentment to a fiery, hard-won reconciliation. It is a perfect match for readers who devour high-stakes historicals featuring capable, morally gray heroines and brooding heroes who demand a second chance.
- Mood
- shadowy
- tense
- romantic
- clandestine
- Tone
- dramatic
- passionate
- angsty
- suspenseful
- Pace
- brisk
- Themes
- maternal sacrifice · weight of past secrets · second chances · enemies to lovers · forgiveness and redemption
- The writing
- Sensory and emotionally charged, leaning into the melodrama of high-stakes historical romance.
- The arc
- Moves from bitter estrangement and desperate survival to passionate reconciliation and hard-won trust.
- Who it's for
- Readers who crave high-stakes historical romance featuring capable, morally gray heroines and brooding, demanding heroes.
Content notes
- blackmail
- past abandonment
- poverty
- theft
About the book
Her husband, her enemy.
Desperate and alone, Lady Emma tricked Lucas Coulter, the Marquess of Wortham, into a hasty marriage. But on their wedding night, when he learned the truth about his not-so-innocent bride, he abandoned her.
Seven years later, Emma lives in disgrace with her beloved daughter, Jenny. Penniless, Emma provides for her child in the one way she knows how: in the dark of night, she creeps across the rooftops of London and steals jewels from the wealthy nobles who have wronged her.
Then Lucas catches her in a daring act of burglary. And he proposes a devil's bargain-- give him an heir...or be exposed. Vowing to hide the devastating secret in her past, Emma agrees to share her husband's bed, never dreaming this cold stranger has become a skilled seducer who will sweep her into a world of peril and passion...
Description from Open Library.
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