The Beloved Scoundrel
A Novel
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- £4.49
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- £4.49
Publisher Description
Now, from nationally best-selling Iris Johansen comes a thrilling tale of abduction, seduction, and surrender that sweeps from the shimmering halls of Regency England to the decadent haunts of a notorious rogue...
She was a hostage torn between passion and loyalty...
Marianna Sanders realized she could not trust this dark and savagely seductive stranger who had come to spirit her away across the sea. She possessed a secret that could topple an empire, a secret that Jordan Draken, the duke of Cambaron, was determined to wrest from her. In the eyes of the world the arrogant duke was her guardian, but they both knew she was to be a prisoner in his sinister plot—and a slave to his exquisite pleasure.
He was the fabulous rake they called the Duke of Diamonds...
For years, brilliant, deadly Jordan Draken had schemed to destroy the emperor who threatened everything he valued most in the world. Now that he held this defiant woman who was the key to his final triumph, he felt a fierce sense of satisfaction...and the first stirring of desire. She was only supposed to be a pawn in his plans, but once alone with his captive, Jordan realized she was a prize he could never surrender.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In 1809, after seeing her mother raped and killed in the Balkans, Marianna Sanders and her little brother, Alex, are taken in by Jordan Draken and return with him and his faithful servant, Gregor Damek, to his English estate. Draken is part of the ruling family of Kazan. Sanders is the granddaughter of a master stained-glass craftswoman who created the ``Window to Heaven,'' containing a panel known as the ``Jedalar,'' which reveals the layout of a tunnel running under the city of Moscow. As Napoleon is on the march, many--including Draken--covet the window. Much in the plot remains fuzzy until far into the book--for instance, the very pursuit of the Jedalar, which appears from the book's opening to have been destroyed. Johansen ( The Magnificent Rogue ) makes some valiant attempts at feminist revision: Draken's cousin Dorothy Kinmar has penned a few tomes on ``the shameful lack of freedom given women in our society.'' On the negative side are Draken's smarmy and often raunchy sexual comments and Sanders's expressions of ecstasy in response to light and stained glass.
