RomanceEverAfter

Book Reviews Cafe

Historical
Review by Donna DeFalco

An Affair Most Wicked
by Julianne MacLean
Avon Books, February 2004

In "An Affair Most Wicked," the second book in the American heiress series, author Julianne MacLean weaves a rich tapestry that captures the opulence and decadence of Europe's fin de siecle. 

Set in 1883, Clara Wilson is following in her sister, Sophia's, footsteps and is having her first coming-out season in London's fashionable Marriage Mart. Narrowly escaping scandal at home, Clara is trying to outrun the indiscretions of her past when she meets Seger Wolfe, the Marquess of Rawdon. With his tawny shoulder-length hair and incredible good looks, Clara falls head over heels for the dangerous rake. 

Despite her best attempts to be respectable, Clara can't stop thinking about the handsome man who kissed her at a scandalous ball, then hurried her out to save her reputation. Seger is renowned throughout London as a spectacular lover who has never married. An outcast from polite society, Seger is drawn to Clara's straightforward American ways, her stunning beauty and passionate nature. 

The two have secrets to share and a practically combustible attraction to each other. Clara does get her man, but the man she gets turns out to be someone she does not really know. "An Affair Most Wicked" is a worthy companion to MacLean's first book ,To Marry the Duke, which features Sophia Wilson's marriage to a less-than-respectable duke. The theme of falling from grace and redemption through love is a potent combination for powerful storytelling.

The books are based on a real period in history when daughters of the American nouveau riche came to England at the turn of the 20th Century looking for titled husbands to give respectability to their family names. The third book in the series is set to be released in late 2004 and will feature the third Wilson sister, Adele.