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"Wickedly entertaining"

Judith Law is the sibling with no future so her parents send her off to become a companion to her wealthy aunt. Her first stagecoach ride proves unromantically tedious until an accident leads to the overturning of the vehicle. Lord Rannulf Bedwyn rescues the damsel in distress. Knowing she has nothing to look forward to, Judith decides she will have one memory, a night of passion with no strings with her hero, though she uses an alias.

Not long afterward, Judith arrives at her aunt's estate but shockingly Rannulf comes almost immediately afterward accompanied by his grandmother. He is meeting Julianne Effingham, Judith's cousin. However, once he recognizes who the companion is, Rannulf knows he is courting the wrong relative but he has to persuade his beloved that they belong to each other.

Though the "Slightly" series uses one night of heavenly passion as part of an initial encounter, this tale also depends heavily on a second step coincidence. Still, fans will feel wickedly entertained by this delightful Regency romance. The key to this pleasant plot is the lead characters, trying to do the right thing for everyone, but also wanting to please themselves, which conflicts with their noble efforts. The latest Bedwyn tale is an invigorating novel that will send newcomers seeking previous Mary Balogh stories and her fan base waiting for next month's SLIGHTLY SCANDALOUS romance.

Harriet Klausner

Reviewed by PNR Group Member
Posted April 24, 2003

With his laughing eyes and wild, rakish good looks, Lord Rannulf Bedwyn is a hard man to resist. To Judith Law, a woman in need of rescue when the stagecoach in which she is traveling overturns, Rannulf is simply her savior, her dream come true, an heroic stranger with whom she will allow herself one night of reckless passion before she must settle to the dreary life of companion to her wealthy aunt. However, a shock is in store for her when that same stranger turns out to be the eligible, wealthy son of a duke--and when he arrives at Harewood Grange to woo her cousin.

Judith holds firm against all Rannulf's advances, both honorable and otherwise. But then scandal rocks the household and threatens her name and her very liberty, and it is Rannulf who rides to her rescue--bringing all the considerable power and influence of the Bedwyns to her defense.

But can a relationship begun in passion and culminating in gratitude offer them a future together? Can true love grow out of something very slightly wicked...