Three Little Secrets by Liz Carlyle

Liz Carlyle's Three Little Secrets is a good book. If someone else had written it, it may be considered very good or great, but given her wealth of wonderful books, this one ends up only being good.

Merrick and Maddie eloped very young, she is just 17, he 22. Her father rips them apart leaving her to believe, Merrick has abandoned her for the bribe her father has offered him, their marriage annulled. She finds herself pregnant and marries a cousin. Merrick believes Maddie has second thoughts after the fact and willingly goes with her father. He is beaten and near death and when he can finally search her out, he is told she's married someone else and gone abroard. Only the marriage was never truly annulled. Fast forward 12 1/2 years. Maddie's a "widow" with a child and Merrick is a rich businessman builder/architect.

So, that makes this book a Big Misunderstanding, Secret Baby, Long Seperation story. Somehow Ms. Carlyle pulls all these romance novel cliches together into a pretty good story.

The characters are well developed. Maddie is still rather naive, but Merrick has turned into "Christmas Past Ebinezer Scrooge." Holy Cow, he maybe honest, but he's ruthless.

The review on AAR is a good one, I lifted this from the end of it:

So, ultimately, even though Three Little Secrets isn’t one of the author’s best, it is, nevertheless, a solid novel that merits a strong recommendation. If it’s no more than a good wrap-up to a slightly above average series, that fact alone makes it a clear stand out in today’s all too crowded marketplace of Wallpaper historicals. Sandy at AAR.

Have a good one and happy reading.

Tara