After Dark with the Duke
Palace of Rogues
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- $5.99
Publisher Description
Sparks fly when a daring diva clashes with an ice-cold war hero in the newest thrilling romance in USA Today bestselling author Julie Anne Long’s Palace of Rogues series.
She arrives in the dead of night, a mob out for blood at her heels: Mariana Wylde, the “Harlot of Haywood Street,” an opera diva brought low by a duel fought for her favors. But the ladies of the Grand Palace on the Thames think they can make a silk purse from scandal: They’ll restore her reputation and share in her triumph...provided they can keep her apart from that other guest.
Coldly brilliant, fiercely honorable, General James Duncan Blackmore, the Duke of Valkirk, is revered, feared, desired...but nobody truly knows him. Until a clash with a fiery, vulnerable beauty who stands for everything he scorns lays him bare. It’s too clear the only cure for consuming desire is conquest, but their only chance at happiness could lead to their destruction.
The legendary duke never dreamed love would be his last battleground. Valkirk would lay down his life for Mariana, but his choice is stark: risk losing her forever, or do the one thing he vowed he never would...surrender.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Rumors and respectability are at the forefront of Long's exceptional fourth Palace of Rogues Regency romance (after I'm Only Wicked with You). Disgraced opera singer Mariana Wylde flees her London home after she's threatened by a mob accusing her of using her feminine wiles to incite a duel. She finds refuge at the Grand Palace on the Thames, a boarding house run by Delilah Hardy and Angelique Durand where war hero James Duncan Blackmore, the Duke of Valkirk, also resides. The image-conscious duke initially rebuffs and ridicules Mariana, until Delilah and Angelique step in. As penance for his poor behavior, James offers to teach Mariana Italian, and their enjoyable tutoring sessions soon lead to frank discussions and intense attraction. But as Mariana considers an offer to sing in a new opera in Paris and James contemplates remarrying after the death of his wife five years before, it seems the differences in their social stations may be insurmountable. Long's intelligent, complex protagonists and their credible hidden depths feel remarkably real, while the slow-burning evolution of their romance and genuine impediments to their love will keep readers hooked. Add in witty dialogue and sharp commentary on class restrictions, and the result is a standout historical romance.
