The Secret Pearl

Mary Balogh doesn't seem able to write a bad book, although some of her earlier books feel a little less rounded than the later ones (her "Slightly" series and "Simply" series). The Secret Pearl is an older book, written in 1991, but in no way does it fail to match up with her newer books - this is a brilliantly written and touching story, although it probably wouldn't appeal as much to the person who just wants to read a straight romance of the "wham, bam, thankyou mam" variety. Tell me, when was the last time you read a book which had, as its heroine, a prostitute who is also a murderess? And when was the last time you read a book where the hero was ugly, scarred, used said prostitute (being unfaithful to his wife) and then, when she was terrified of him, contrived to keep her close at hand so that she got over her fear? Hmmm, takes a while but no, haven't read any other books like this one. And, having read what I've said there, our hero and heroine don't seem very heroic at all. Far from it! But Mary Balogh's books always seem to delve deeper into the realities of life in Regency England - not just the gowns and balls and glamour but the seedier underside, particularly for those who have no money or have fallen foul of society in some other way. These books aren't straight "Girl meets Duke, they fall in love and get married" - there is always a lot more to overcome for the characters and consequently the books are far more satisfying. So.... Fleur Hamilton finds herself on the streets soliciting for the first time, having run away from the scene where she has accidentally killed a man. And her first customer is the scarred Duke of Ridgeway who decides, after the event, that he has to make amends to her in some way, and so Fleur ends up becoming Governess to Lady Pamela Ridgeway, not realising it is her customer's daughter and his household. The Duke's wife instantly takes a dislike to Fleur and Lady Pamela isn't much more willing to be taught so Fleur doesn't have an easy time and yet it is much better than earning her living on the streets. And then the master of the house comes home and she recognises him as the man who has been giving her nightmares ever since her experience with him. He is wrestling with his own demons - his unfaithful wife and inability to come to terms with the scarring he received in battle - and finds himself circling round the wary Fleur. He has no further designs on her, but as they interact he begins to see her in a different light. There's a lot of darkness in this story - both of events and of circumstances; our hero is married, for example, and is unfaithful to his wife. We can't entirely sympathise with any of the characters which is what makes the book more of an achievement - just like us, the characters are flawed, and yet they are trying to work through these flaws. The Duke turns out to be a very good person to have helping you when you're trying to discover the truth about the death at your hands and

Last spring, I read Mary Balogh's More Than a Mistress and loved it, but was disappointed with No Man's Mistress and decided not to bother with Balogh again. However, someone told me about The Secret Pearl and how I should read it because it is a beautiful story that is also quite historically accurate to boot. I couldn't find this so-called gem for a while and gave up. But I bought it the second I heard that the book had been reprinted. My friend had been right! This is one beautiful, tragic, heartbreaking love story of star-crossed lovers and unrequited love with an amazing eye on historical detail. Isabella Fleur Bradshaw has reached her last resort. Having escaped from her home after tragedy strikes, she is starving and penniless and has resorted to the last and most unwanted option: to become a whore. She meets a dark, brooding, scarred gentleman one evening outside a theater. She sells her body for the first and only time. The experience is dark and sordid and one she doesn't wish to repeat again. She especially doesn't want to see the scary scarred man again. But when she accepts the position as a five-year-old girl's governess one week later, she discovers that not only is the scarred man her new employer, but that he is also Adam Kent, the Duke of Ridgeway, husband and father. Seeing him awakens her nightmares from that terrible night and she fears him and is repulsed by him. Slowly, however, she discovers a different side of the duke. Reluctant, these two tortured souls find themselves becoming closer to one another, but they both have secrets, secrets that are worse than breaking the rules of propriety. There are many twists throughout the novel. As I read this novel, I remembered the reason why I enjoyed More than a Mistress so much -- Balogh's beautiful, fluid prose. She makes you feel the time period and the emotions the characters go through. This is Regency England through and through and at times I felt as though I was reading Jane Eyre. Rules of propriety are brought up a lot in this novel, and some people may find it overwrought, but those were the ways of the time and I for one am glad that Balogh hadn't ignored them. Some authors choose style over substance when it comes time to writing a historical romance novel, and that is why most of said novels only succeed in pulling the reader out of the story. Fleur is kind of frustrating at times. For a large portion of the book, you will read about her fear of Adam and how she thinks that all of his selfless acts are attempts to turn her into his mistress, though that is not the case, for Adam is an honorable man who, aside from that one night, has been faithful to his selfish wife. I understood Fleur's fear and wariness of the duke, for their first encounter is quite dark and awful. In fact, that opening chapter sets quite a dark tone for the novel and that scene of them together at the inn was, as said earlier, sordid (to put some potential readers at ease,

Several friends had given me raving reviews of this book, so I was a little afraid to have too many expectations and be disappointed. I shouldn't have! This was no doubt one of the most enthralling novels I've ever read -- I was still up at 4 am last night trying to finish it, because it is impossible to put it down once you start this book.The story starts with a difficult, raw scene of a man using the services of a prostitute in a seedy London hotel. For the first time since he married, Adam Kent, Duke of Ridgeway, is being unfaithful and giving in to the temptation of needs that his wife doesn't fulfil. He hadn't planned to hire the girl's services, but something beyond his own understanding beckons him to her that night.Fleur was once a Lady, until dreadful events forced her to run away from her home and left her alone and without resources. That night, selling her body is the last choice she has. She accepts her fate with courage and doesn't even flinch or show her disgust towards her customer's badly scarred body or his emotionless treatment.It's too late when Adam Kent realises that Fleur was a virgin who is selling her body as the only alternative to starvation. Moved by what poverty can lead to, the Duke orders his secretary to find Fleur and offer her a post as his daughter's governess.So it is a surprised and suddenly hopeful Fleur who settles in Willoughby a few days later, unaware that her new employer is her one and only customer. And for a couple of weeks, she allows herself to relax and put both the heavy secrets that sent her away from her home and the dreadful night in London to the back of her mind... until the Duke comes home and she discovers the truth of his identity.It's difficult to put into words what is so exceptional about The Secret Pearl. It's amazing that someone who appears like an anti-hero in the beginning of the book, a careless man who pays the services of a prostitute despite his married state, and treats her with so much contempt at first, turns out to be a vulnerable, tender, loving and romantic hero. We progressively discover a man who has been badly scarred by life, not just physically but also emotionally, and who still puts his loved ones' happiness before his own. We fear for Fleur when she's cornered, caught between what made her run from her home and the secret that links her to Adam. Her fear of him, seen both through her eyes and Adam's, is remarkably real. The change of feelings between Fleur and Adam, whom she sees as the brutal man who took her virginity in her nightmares, then as the only person who can save her from losing herself completely, flows very naturally until it culminates in one of the most poignant love scenes I've ever read.I had been impressed by several books by Mary Balogh before, but this one is simply outstanding.If you're a fan of tearjerky romances, The Secret Pearl is a must-read... and must-re-read. :)

There aren't many writers of historical romances - especially set in the English Regency period - who can make their heroine a prostitute, have the reader know about it right from the start of the book, and not only get away with it, but have the readers on the heroine's side from the beginning. But Balogh's done it, and more than once too. The Secret Pearl opens with Adam, Duke of Raybourne, emerging from the Drury Lane Theatre, parting from his friends, and seeing a sad-looking prostitute standing in the shadows. Something makes him approach her; despite the fact that she isn't throwing out any lures to him at all, he hires her. And, despite the fact that sleeping with prostitutes isn't something he makes a habit of, he takes her to a room in a run-down inn to use her.This, we find, is Fleur's first night as a prostitute; having gone two days without food and unable to get a job, she has decided to sell the only remaining asset she has: herself. Her client, though, makes the experience almost as bad as it could possibly be: he is clinical and direct about what he wants, and - not knowing that Fleur is a virgin - he hurts her. Afterwards, Adam does feel some guilt, and he feeds Fleur as well as giving her three times as much money as she asked for. And then he sends his secretary to ensure that she is offered a job - as governess to his daughter. His motives, he assumes, are simply philanthropic: he hates the thought of a gentlewoman down on her luck having to survive on the streets, and he feels guilty for not having realised before it was too late that she wasn't accustomed to her trade.So Fleur takes up residence in the Duke of Raybourne's estate, delighted to have found a refuge both from her life in London and from the horrors from which she ran in the first place. Until the Duke of Raybourne comes home, and she discovers that he is the same man who fills her nightmares, the man who hurt her, the man who, in her dreams, rapes her nightly. And yet, as the days go by, he is also the man who comforts her, who protects her and who offers her a safe refuge.And there are many more complications in what is already a complex story: Adam, of course, is married, and he is an honourable man who will not betray his marriage vows, despite his lapse in London - the only time he has ever been unfaithful. And Fleur is running from a murder charge. And her tormentor is even closer than she imagines. Balogh creates a wonderful, believable portrait of what seems to be an impossible relationship. Adam, appallingly scarred both internally and externally as a result of Waterloo plus private torments, and who was cruelly rough with Fleur when he hired her as a prostitute, does not seem to be the ideal romantic hero - and yet he is, in every way. Fleur, a possible murderer, a prostitute, does not seem to be the ideal heroine, either - and yet she isn't at all what she seems, although she did certainly sell herself on the streets. But how is it possible that she co

The Secret Pearl is Mary Balogh at her best. The Secret Pearl is romance at it's best! I finished this book last night hours after I should have been asleep. When I can't put the book down like this, I know it's a 5 star read.Adam is scarred from his battle in Waterloo but he is scarred on the inside too. When this Duke sees a quiet unassuming prostitute standing in the shadows of a theatre, he is drawn to her although he has remained faithful to his marriage vows since he married the current duchess 5 years before. He doesn't know why the prostitute stays on his mind after their fateful night but we find out as he eventually does that he was meant for her and she for him. The prostitute is Fleur, a lady down on her luck or so it would seem. Fate, it seems had let Adam and Fleur down for many years but smiles on Adam and Fleur on this fateful night. Of course Adam and Fleur would disagree then that fate was smiling on them. For that is the night that Fleur decided she was not going to go without food for the 3rd day in a row. She can live or die and she makes her choice to live knowing that the only thing she had to sell at that point was her body. The employment agency had all but laughed in her face when she sought employment without references. She tells Adam that she had been standing there for a day or so but noone else had wanted her. Adam doesn't wonder why as he looks Fleur over and notices her dull scraggly hair, her thin and drawn body, and her dried cracked lips. Adam and Fleur are complex characters, much more than the usual two dimensional characters we get from your average romance that is churned out every month. Even the villians aren't just evil for the sake of being evil. They are also complex and most have their reasons for their weaknesses. Adam is not a martyre. Nor is he perfect. He is simply an honorable man. (I don't want to spoil anything for those about to read the book but I don't like men who cheat so don't think you'll have to accept any less in this book if you're of the same nature. When I say honorable, I mean it in every way) Fleur has every reason to believe Adam is a monster based on her first impression of him. The romance is about how Fleur gets to know Adam and he her. But more than anything it's about two people who should have nothing in common but has one main thing in common: Neither have been loved nor cared for in a very long time although they are themselves loving and caring people.I love it when the man shares his feelings with the love of his life. And I love the way the story is told. You get her side and then his side but it's done so smoothly you don't feel any inturruptions or jerks in the telling of the love story. When he declared his feelings to Fleur and her vision became blurred, so did mine. I'll admit it. I cried. But I cried because it was such a well written book. But Mary always draws me in emotionally like that. And it's not the heavy drepressing felt