Mary Balogh, Slightly Sinful

Slightly Sinful

Mary Balogh

Dell, May 2004, $6.50, 384 pp.

ISBN: 0440236606

With the battle raging against Napoleon who recently escape from his prison, Lord Alleyne Bedwin, a diplomat working for Sir Charles Stuart, relocates to Brussels. Though frightened to do so, Alleyne agrees to deliver a message from his employer to Wellington at the front and return with the response. He marvels how his courageous older brother survived twelve years of this hell called war. However, he is shot on his return and though he tries to concentrate on getting to his sister as he is her chaperone in Brussels, he falls unconscious onto the forest ground.

Alleyne awakens in a Brussels brothel where his angel of mercy is Rachel York. She lives amongst these ladies ever since Reverend Nigel Crawley conned her and left her broke. Though he suffers from amnesia, Alleyne wants to help the woman he plans to marry once he regains his memory. Posing as a married couple, Rachel and Alleyne return to England to expose Nigel as a fraud, not yet realizing the sinful scandal nor the danger their masquerade causes the two of them.

The fifth of six "Slightly" tales is a wonderful regency romance that charms the audience due to a delightful lead pair and a fabulous support cast that brings back many star players from the previous entries. Mary Balogh keeps the amnesia gimmick fresh through the interrelationship between Alleyne and Rachel. Sub-genre fans will find SLIGHTLY SINFUL totally entertaining and will eagerly await the next and final book in this series.

Harriet Klausner