Secret Love [Mass Market Paperback]

Having said that, it is good for its genre. I agree with another reviewer who is also relieved that the lead characters are adults (29 & 30) another correction - guess no one is really paying that much attention to the details of this book. I also find it amusing that Alathea is really so imbecilic and continues to have sex with 'Gabriel' and not think about the possibility of scandal through pregnancy. She refuses to marry him after his proposal but somehow you don't get the impression that she is going to stop sleeping with him having already done so many times.

It was one of Laurens' more mature books and I like that. I liked the Alathea's psychosis - she is older, taller and does not think of herself as particularly attractive. She seems a more well-rounded individual than most of Lauren's female lead characters.

Rupert/Gabriel falls into the Alpha-male/hero role and so is not as interesting a character. We are told that he has difficulty in trusting but we don't know why but at least we are spared from the usual line that he is a 'tortured soul'.

I think the sensuality rating is a bit harsh - this is not one of Laurens' truly raunchy reads - it is really quite tame when compared to The Promise In a Kiss or On A Wicked Dawn.

Enjoy it - it's great pulp fiction but careful not to overdose on Laurens as most of her books seem to have the same plotlines.

Okay, so we have, this time, Rupert Cynster, yet another cousin, and this one goes by the nickname Gabriel. Gabriel's big interest is money: investments of the stocks and shares variety. So when he is approached by a woman dressed in black and fully veiled, who introduces herself to him only as The Countess, recently widowed, it's not only his sense of chivalry which is piqued by her request to him to help her family from becoming destitute as the result of a scam.

Under the Countess's disguise is Lady Alathea Morwellan, who is neither a widow nor a countess; she is the daughter of the earl who made the unwise investment. Apparently, she has known Gabriel from childhood, but she chose not to approach him as herself for two reasons. First, she was embarrassed at the thought of revealing the full extent of her family's misfortune to him, and second, she wasn't convinced that he would help if he knew it was her.

This is one aspect of the story which was poorly done. Alathea, Gabriel and his brother Alasdair grew up together, but yet we only discover this a few chapters in; it almost felt as if Laurens had decided to add this element as an afterthought. Gabriel and Alathea's awkwardness around each other felt similarly unconvincing. I can understand buried attraction making them prickly, but this wasn't two people secretly attracted to each other striking sparks whenever they met. This was two people who seemed genuinely to hate each other. And I can't believe that Gabriel, highly experienced lover, doesn't recognise sexual attraction when he encounters it. He's over thirty, for heaven's sake, and he doesn't realise that's why he and Alathea are prickly around each other? Nope, that didn't work for me.

Anyway, Gabriel begins to find out information for the Countess, but insists on claiming a reward for every discovery: a kiss. And so it's not long before things go far beyond kissing. Again, two things strike me as extremely unbelievable here. First, why would Alathea let things go that far? I can't buy the 'carried away by passion' explanation - not even the first time, let alone on subsequent occasions. It didn't make sense for the character as established. And second, yet again, how is it that Laurens' female characters never seem to suffer the consequences of their actions? No precautions are taken, and yet Alathea is supremely blithe in her conviction that nothing will happen.

Another difficulty for me was caused by Laurens' apparent lack of understanding of what 'step-siblings' are; Alathea keeps referring to her step-sisters and brothers, so I assumed - since the Earl was her father - that these were all the children of her stepmother's previous marriage. But no; her 'step-brother' was apparently the Earl's heir. In other words, they were her *half*-siblings. Talk about unnecessary confusion! And why on earth didn't her editor spot this?

Oh, and the discovery of Alathea's identity, when it happened, was just so predictable - Laurens, couldn't you at least have *tried* to make it less obvious to the reader? I felt that I was being bashed over the head with what was about to happen; it was as obvious as those seventies detective series where ominous music plays as the camera pans on a particular scene or item. The discovery would actually have been enjoyable had it come as a surprise, but as it was I was just counting pages until it happened.

There is, as ever, a dramatic plot to the story; it holds the attention for a while but, like most of Laurens' mystery/detective plots, it does tend to take over and get tedious. It's a good means of getting the protagonists to work together, but it did mean that I was flicking quickly through several pages from time to time.

I'm marking time through the rest of the series now, since I already have the books, but have already decided not to bother buying the newest Cynster release. After book after book of repetitive plots, I want some better-written, more varied reading!

This book focuses on Gabriel Cynster and Alathea Morwellan.

Gabriel and Alathea have known each other all their lives, but they find that they can't be in each other's company without arguing, especially about Alathea's cap.

However, Alathea's family has stumbled upon hard times, and she must turn to someone for help, and who better than Gabriel. But she disguises herself so that he won't recognise her.

It was enjoyable watching these two grow closer and realise that the reason they were always arguing was not because they didn't like each other, but for quite the opposite reason.

I liked seeing Gabriel fall in love with the mysterious 'Countess', his struggle not to try to find who she really was, his decision to marry her even when he didn't know who she was and then what he experienced when he realised that the woman he had fallen in love with was none other than Alathea herself.

This series just keeps getting better and better.

A must read.