A duke like no other

Only one thing stands between General Mark Grimaldi and the position of home secretary: a wife. While no one in the British government has any complaints about Mark's military service, the consensus is that only a married man will do when it comes to leading the Home Office. Fortunately for Mark, his chances of gaining the promotion he desperately desires are quite good since he already has a wife: Nicole Huntington Grimaldi. Unfortunately for Mark, he hasn't seen Nicole in more than a decade. Now all Mark has to do is convince Nicole to accompany him back to England and pretend to be his loving spouse. Nicole agrees to play along with Mark's plan on one condition: she wants Mark to consummate their marriage so that she can have the baby she has always wanted. A hero and heroine struggling to come to terms with their past while dealing with an abundance of present-day, pent-up passion and a potential murder adds up to another entertaining entry in Bowman's fanciful and fun Playful Brides series.--Charles, John Copyright 2010 Booklist

Bowman's ninth Playful Brides Regency (after The Right Kind of Rogue) reunites a career soldier and his independent wife after a 10-year separation. Gen. Mark Grimaldi has political aspirations of becoming the next home secretary after spending his adult life in the military. Upon learning that he must be married in order to be considered for the position, Mark travels to France to ask his estranged wife, Nicole, to return to England with him until he achieves his goal. She agrees to Mark's conditions as long as he will consent to fathering a child with her. Mark and Nicole are both unprepared for the intense mutual longing they experience when reunited, and they are haunted by the misunderstandings of their pasts. When an unexpected death puts Mark next in line to inherit a title, Mark and Nicole join forces to investigate the murder, and their interactions sizzle with emotions and sensuality. The fast pace of the novel is enhanced by delightful characters who are defined not by their class but by their integrity. This is a strong entry in an enjoyable series. Agent: Kevan Lyon, Marsal Lyon Literary. (May) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

A married couple faces the mystery of whether they can learn to love each other again.Mark and Nicole Grimaldi have been married for 10 years and three months but haven't seen each other for a decade. Only three months into what both thought would be their happily-ever-after, a mutual betrayal sent Nicole to France to serve England as a spy, and soon after, Cpl. Mark Grimaldi doubled down on his work for the military to forget her. Now they both need each other again: Now a general, Mark must prove he's a family man in order to achieve his lifelong goal of being promoted to Home Secretary, and Nicole wants a child. She agrees to come back to London and play the role of devoted wife, and he agrees to sleep with her until she gets pregnant, at which point she'll go back to France and they'll live separately for good. Secretly, both have remained celibate in their time apart, and they begin falling for each other again no matter how much they try to keep their passionate moments purely about procreation. Despite their chemistry, however, the secrets that broke up their first go-round may disallow a second happy ending. The ninth entry in the Playful Brides series features another strong heroine who knows what she wants and another hero who may have waited too long to prove himself to his true lovealways a winning combination in Bowman's (The Right Kind of Rogue, 2017, etc.) hands. Nicole and Mark's tense conversations and hot sex scenes drive the story forward predictably, but as it progresses, the plot develops with several interesting twists that make the ending all the more satisfying. Many readers will be delighted to see the Bow Street Runners so central to the story, and fans of second-chance romance will be charmed from the first chapter.A mature, suspense-filled Regency romance. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.