Deceived

by Bertrice Small

Overview

1760. Aurora and Calandra "Cally" Kimberly hear that Valerian, the Duke of Farminster has come to their island home of St. Thomas from England to claim his prize--an heiress promised to him by marriage contract. Aurora, the true heiress, wants nothing to do with the handsome but pompous duke. Nothing could drag her away from her beautiful island home to the cold, rainy, gloomy England.

Cally, on the other hand, is elated with the news and longs to put St. Thomas behind her and escape to England to live the pampered life as a Duchess. Their solution: switch places to fool the duke into marriage with the wrong sister. But fate has other plans for the sisters. Love, revenge and intrigue all play into bringing the true lovers together.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781680682427
Publisher:	Ethan Ellenberg Literary Agency
Publication date:	04/07/2022
Pages:	400
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.82(d)

About the Author

Bertrice Smallhas written thirty novels of historical romance and two erotic novellas. She is a New York Times bestselling author and the recipient of numerous awards. In keeping with her profession, Bertrice Small lives in the oldest English-speaking town in the state of New York, founded in 1640. Her light-filled studio includes the paintings of her favorite cover artist, Elaine Duillo, and a large library—but no computer as she works on an IBM Quietwriter 7. Her longtime assistant, Judy Walker, types the final draft. Because she believes in happy endings, Bertrice Small has been married to the same man, her hero, George, for thirty-eight years. They have a son, Thomas, a daughter-in-law, Megan, and two adorable grandchildren, Chandler David and Cora Alexandra. Longtime readers will be happy to know that Nicki the Cockatiel flourishes along with his fellow housemates, Pookie, the long-haired greige and white, Honeybun, the petite orange lady cat with the cream-colored paws, and Finnegan, the black long-haired baby of the family, who is almost two.

Editorial Reviews

A veteran author of panting heavy-petters, Small (Darling Jasmine, etc.) tells a tale of two stepsisters with the same first name and very different attitudes toward men and sex during the reign of George III. Charlotte Aurora Kimberly and Charlotte Calandra Kimberly swap fates: when Aurora discovers that her late father arranged for her to be married on her 17th birthday to Valerian Hawkesworth, Duke of Farminster, she sends socially ambitious Calandra in her place. All seems well as young Calandra sails with her dashing groom from the Kimberlys' plantation on St. Timothy for England. But when, months later, Aurora visits the motherland to choose a suitable mate of her own, it becomes apparent that something in the Hawkesworth marriage is amissand that Calandra has none of her virgin stepsister's "ardent bent." Aurora becomes engaged to Hawkesworth's rival cousin, but the duke can't hide his attraction to her. When an unwanted pregnancy conveniently claims Calandra's life, Hawkesworth swears he will claim the woman who is his by destiny. The tale shuttles between the West Indies and the court of the young George III, but turgid sex, not well-rendered setting, remains its primary passion.

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Appalled to discover that she is expected to marry an English duke she has never met, free-spirited West Indian heiress Aurora Kimberly trades places with her social-climbing stepsisterand ends up in love with the same man she "gave away." A take-charge hero, a heroine who eventually discovers what she really wants, and a cast of interesting but stereotypical characters add to this bawdy Georgian story that will be read more for its colorful period descriptions and bold, earthy sensuality than for the complexity of its plot or the sophistication of its writing. Small (The Love Slave, Ballantine, 1995) is a well-known writer of sexually explicit historicals in the sweet/ savage tradition and her fans will demand this. Small lives in Southold, New York.

Library Journal