Saturday, January 15, 2011

Tainted by Temptation-Katy Madison

Tainted by Temptation
Katy Madison
Avon, Jan 25 2011, $7.99
ISBN: 9780062017345

In London Velvet Campbell was a magnet for gossip. Needing to escape the unfair whispers and innuendos, she accepts employment in Cornwall although she has heard cruel accusations of her employer murdering his late wife by throwing her off the nearby cliffs. Lucian Pendar hires her as governess to his daughter Iris in spite of a horrific first meeting.

Velvet and Lucian are attracted to one another, but both know that the needs of grieving Iris must come first. The child not only wants her mom to come home, the woman’s ghost seems to be walking the mists near where she fell to her death. As Velvet investigates the questionable death, she falls in love with father and daughter, but her efforts to prove Lucian is not a killer prove futile as each new piece of evidence she finds affirms the rumors that he murdered his wife.

Although a linear story line in which readers will find no twists, Tainted by Temptation is an engaging gothic historical whodunit romance. The lead couple each has secrets that explain their role in the scandals that engulf them, but neither trusts the other with the baggage they carry. Action-packed from the moment Velvet faints at Lucian’s feet and never slowing down, fans will appreciate Katy Madison’s entertaining romantic amateur sleuth.

Harriet Klausner

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