Liz Carlyle

Regency/Secrets Trilogy

Overall:
Sensuality:
Cover Cheese:

Romance novel plots are so predictable.

Girl meets boy. Girl kicks boy to curb. Girl gets swept off her feet by boy as she brings him to his knees.

OK. That sounds physically awkward, possibly even painful. But I think you know what I mean. There's just nothing new under the sun when it comes to romance novel story lines.

Most readers embrace that prospect with a hearty, "please, ma'am, I want some more!"

We adore a tried-and-true plot -- know the ending of the novel before it starts -- and are more than happy to angst along with our hero and heroine until the last sigh of the happy ending epilogue.

Our fave hack plots?

Innocent chit begs hardened rake to school her in ways of love so she can catch a husband.

War hero is too damaged to love, until shy spinster nurses his heart back to life.

Warrior princess saves planet by kidnapping and making love to the strapping extra-terrestrial prince subjugating her people.

Yeah. That's a good one.

There's another plot cliché that is a favorite non pareil of many romance readers:

Young lovers separated in the bloom of their relationship hook up after years of wondering how things might have been...

Things might have worked out just dandy -- after the requisite delicious heartache, tantalizing flashbacks, and lusty reunion -- as is the case in Liz Carlyle's sensual, bold, and wickedly satisfying "Three Little Secrets."

Madeleine, Lady Besset, is a young dowager countess who's moved to London with her son to be near a healer who may bring relief to the deeply-troubled boy.

Upon buying a home, she learns that the architect is none other than the dreadful bounder who a decade before married and abandoned her at Gretna Green, a man she believes took a bribe from her father to annul the affair.

Merrick MacLachlin had hoped he'd never again see Maddie, the sweet girl who ran home to her wealthy father on hers and Merrick's wedding night.

He refuses to acknowledge the feelings he still has for the woman. And even as Madeleine and Merrick tenuously renew their friendship, neither is willing to share with the other the secrets that could ruin their lives.

Carlyle is a talented writer who excels in creating drama from ordinary and extraordinary circumstances.

Her novels, "Three Little Secrets" included, are thick with intrigue and maturity, but tempered by characters who, while darker or more worldly, are no less deserving of finding love and emotional fulfillment.

And Carlyle writes splendid sensuality, always authentic to character, and filled with the emotion that makes her love scenes intimate and excruciatingly erotic.

Carlyle's books have always been among my favorites, especially "A Woman Scorned," now in reissue.

In terms of "Three Little Secrets," it may sound clichéd, but --

Buy the book.

www.LizCarlyle.com

Next Week's Review and AuthorView: "Dark Side of the Moon," by Sherrilyn Kenyon