Julie Ann Long, The Secret to Seduction

The Secret to Seduction

Julie Ann Long

Warner, May 2007, $6.99

ISBN: 0446616885

In 1820, after another senseless duel in which neither shooter was hurt, the womanizing Earl Rhys Gillray learns that the country estate la Montagne is his. Tired of angry husbands and flirty wives, his reputation as the bawdy poet Libertine, and mostly a sedition trial that touches him, Rhys decides to rusticate at his new home.

He hides his retreat by throwing a house soiree. Paul and Mary Capshaw are among the invited and they bring her friend, Sabrina Fairleigh, daughter of a vicar and in love with curator Geoffrey Gillray, Rhys' cousin. Mary plans to help Sabrina with her pursuit of Geoffrey, who is visiting his cousin to obtain funding for a missionary project abroad. However, when the Earl of Rawden and the vicar's daughter see one another for the first time, an attraction ignites. He sees her as a means to end his ennui while she sees him as a rake she desires. As they match wit with pleasure, neither realizes the links between their families that once understood will prove love is not enough.

Julie Anne Long provides an entertaining Regency romance with some late suspense that threatens to end the relationship between the lead couple just as it soars. The storyline is a gender battle between an innocent woman and a hedonistic rake who plans to teach her first hand THE SECRET TO SEDUCTIONS only to begin to wonder just who is the student and who the professor is. Sub-genre fans will appreciate this enjoyable charmer.

Harriet Klausner