I love a good twist. I love not knowing how a book will end. But with that being said, I almost didn't finish this book because the twisting was so extreme I was lost. Kathryn has a child who looks just like Andrew, but it's not his. And it's not his fathers (cause if you believe all the author has to say about his character then it can't be his), but there is no hidden evil brother who could have slept with her. So who the heck is the father??!!! Kathryn was raped (this won't ruin the book for you) and since the author leads you to think the child is Andrew's father's you are left with the fact that his father raped his fiance. I was so confused, I thought the marquise was a good guy who loved Kathryn and his son. So either the author's description is wrong or the author's plot is wrong. I was so frustrated that I couldn't enjoy and I didn't know which characters I was supposed to like and which ones were bad. I finally skipped ahead and read the ending so that I could find out.

My advice for anyone reading this book is: read the last chapter first and then read the book. I reread it after I read ahead and it was very good. I even liked the characters and understood their struggles. Poor Kathryn. And the plot twists made sense once you are given all the information, but you can't figure it out without any clues. It's like a murder mystery book and you think you know who the killer is and in the last chapter you discover it was Mr. White who wasn't even introduced until the end when he is revealed as the villan. How am I supposed to figure that out????!!!

My advice to Ms. Lee---please don't write something so twisted I can't focus on the character development and their struggles. There was just too much twisting with no clues given along the way to help us cope with your slowly unraveling plot. I can't help but wonder if she wrote this book backwards, knowing the ending but not wanting to give it away. Well, it worked. I didn't get it and she almost lost a fan.

Setting ? England, 1818 --- After a tragic sailing accident kills his father and his current mistress, Andrew Ramsey, now the new Marquis, found himself the executor of an intriguing codicil to his father?s last will and testament. The codicil stated that Andrew would assume the care of any illegitimate offspring born within nine months of his demise, from any of the many mistresses he?d taken to comfort him after the death of his beloved wife. Planning to bury his father and his companion together, Andrew traveled to evict his father?s live-in mistress, a Mrs. Stoddard, from the family estate. The intention being that Andrew wished to avoid any more scandal of having one mistress presiding over the burial of another mistress! He was then devastated to find that Mrs. Stoddard was in fact, Kathryn Markinson, the one and only woman he had ever loved, who had jilted him at the altar four years before.

Andrew was hurt beyond belief, that his beloved father - who knew of his pain at being jilted ? would take his former fianc?e as his mistress. The pain and betrayal only intensified once he discovered that she was also mother to his father?s illegitimate son Kit, his step brother ? a child that should have been his! Not only did he have to deal with these feelings of betrayal, but also was amazed to discover that in spite of it all, he still wanted her! Kathryn, still loved him even though she had married another who was old enough to be her father, then became the mistress to bearing his father a son. The mystery of how Andrew could still love and desire this woman after all she?d done was incidental to the puzzles the reader will feel compelled to solve as to why Kathryn didn?t show up for her wedding and what motivated her behavior afterwards.

Once again, the reader will benefit from another well-written and engaging historical novel unfortunately, with the one blatant error of naming an illegitimate child as heir apparent to a marquis ? uh oh ? big slip-up there! The mystery of why his father didn?t marry Kathryn to legitimize Kit, and why Kathryn couldn?t tell Drew the truth of that fateful period, will propel the reader into furiously turning the pages to discover the secrets in an emotional edge of the seat finale. Fans of Ms. Hagan Lee will not be disappointed in this passionately poignant and heartwarming tale. --- Marilyn Rondeau, Official Reviewer for www.historicalromancewriters.com ---

Some needless repetition and a highly convoluted situation with Kathryn as a mistress (both interesting and irritating) create some problems in this otherwise interesting tale.

Lee makes the 15th Marquess's many mistresses seem like a virtue; in the end, the reader has to like him. Drew is even more complicated in some ways than his father; he is still understandably angry with Kathryn for leaving him at the altar, but he still loves her. She has never stopped loving him, but circumstances do not look good. It takes almost the entire novel to sort out all the various misunderstandings, secrets, adn half-truths. In fact, not all of them are revealed in this book; more are revealed in book 3 (Always a Lady), and I recommend reading it immediately after this one.

Both the hero & the heroine are strong characters, and there's a excellent cast of secondary characters. Drew & Kathryn are faced with an extremely difficult situation and must struggle with numerious complications to resolve things. If it were all a little less confusing, it would be a better book; more needed to be revealed to the reader earlier. I am still not convinced about Kathryn's reasoning for leaving Drew at the altar and never telling him why; I suppose she didn't know him well enough to trust him with it, but she should have tried.

It's a good book, just not Lee's best.