Ms. Rawlings' The Belanger Family series is one of my favorite romances. This book takes place one year after the events of the first book. The Reign of Terror is over for the most part and the rise of Napoleon is in the early days. Brigitte is blackmailed into helping her father-in-law into spying on Jean-Paul (younger brother of the hero from the first book) in order to make JP pay for the death of Brigitte's husband. The father-in-law is a very powerful black market operator/mastermind and has spies spying on Brigitte as she is spying on JP. However, JP and Brigitte grow close, as well as JP and her kids still at home (including the heroine of the next book). It was wonderfully atmospheric and the period details were used to move the plot along. The pace kept the character motivations from being too repetitive and I really felt the romance develop nicely from the get go. And it is always a treat to read a historical romance set in someplace other than the US or England.
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