The Duke's Scandalous Secret
Connie Lane
Pocket, Sep 2004, $6.99, 352 pp.
ISBN: 0743462874

The Blades want to bet the Dashers that they can learn the dark secret of the Duke of Ravensfield before their rivals. The Dashers are uninterested in finding out why Thomas Flanders rusticates for long stretches of time. However, Dasher Lynette Overton has loved Thomas from the first moment she saw him and thinks this is the right time to gain his love by arriving unannounced in a state of peril.

Without informing her friends, Lynette travels to Ravensfield where Thomas is unhappy to see her. He tries to get rid of her because he does not want her to know his secret that he writes gothic romances under an alias. She is keeping him from his work that is needed to pay bills. As Lynnette refuses to leave and shams illness, her efforts to learn who set up her late mother to be called a thief and treated by the Ton as a pariah leads to her peril as someone wants that kept secret. With Lynnette in danger, Thomas realizes he loves her and will keep her safe although it means no new novels at least at this time.

THE DUKE'S SCANDALOUS SECRET is a solid Regency romance that will provide readers with plenty of pleasure. The storyline has two subplots with Lynette in the middle of both. The resolution of stopping the villain who destroyed her mother and wants to do likewise with Lynnette is clever as it ultimately intertwines the tale into a delightful cohesive novel starring two fine protagonists.

Harriet Klausner