Jade Lee was one of the speaker's at this year's WisRWA Conference in Wausau, WI where I live. Very dynamic speaker, very fun & funny person with a real talent for getting to a HEART of a story. She autographed the two titles of hers I own - this is one of them. Getting to meet & know an author (even a little) definitely makes a book more personal.

Lynette was an innocent parson's daughter when her father died and left her penniless. Faced with never being able to marry, to always be a burden on charitable relatives, she makes a pact with a Baroness Huntley to be trained as the perfect wife and sold on the open marriage market. Her teacher is the jaded Viscount Marlock. She's shocked to discover that most of what he's to teach her would better suit a courtesan or mistress than a wife. And she's horrified to discover that "Marlock Girls" are purchased by depraved old men with...unconventional...appetites. Marlock eases her mind with pictures of herself as a rich, free widow at the end of the road.

This was definitely a unique read. Some parts were very disturbing. Viscount Marlock is the darkest, most tortured hero I've met in a long time, but I couldn't stop reading. There is a lot of angst, and doubt, and you definitely see both sides of the coin - blessing and curse. But the HEA is believable after a swift wrap-up.