The Widow Wore Scarlet

The Widow Wore Scarlett by Adele Clee 2019 Regency

I have found that it can be more fun writing about the villain than the hero or heroine. Clee gives us two outcasts in Regency England with Damian Wycliff, the illegitimate son of Marquis of Blackbeck, and Scarlett, an actress with a mysterious past and someone trying to kill her. They are broken people who find each other.

Scarlett hears Damian crying out for help after he has been beaten and stabbed near her home on Drury Lane. She takes him in, stitches the gash on his leg, and tends to him for three days. They reveal their inner needs and feelings but do not make love. He is grateful for her kindness and respects her so he only holds her. Scarlett knows if she becomes Damian’s mistress, she will be heartbroken when he replaces her, so she keeps her clothes on.

Three years pass and Scarlett goes to Damian for help. She married Lord Stone who beat her and treated her viciously instead of protecting her. He died bedding his mistress. Several attempts have been made on her life, and she enlists Damian to help her find the person who wants her dead.

The supporting cast incudes two of Damian’s friends who are also illegitimate. Sequels involve each of them. Other characters in the book play important roles in the lives of the main characters with several twists in the plot.

Clee does an excellent job taking the two broken people, who mistrust everyone, and slowing thawing their broken hearts as secrets in both their lives are revealed. She uses the Regency setting with more notorious locations than in a G-rated romance and this one is rated R for language and sex, but captures the decadence of this darker side of a traditional regency.

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