This is the second book from the Berkley-Faulkner series, one of Lisa Kleypas's early works and I liked this better than Where Passion Leads, the one about Rand and Rosalie.

Reading about this made me anxious and tense, but it also made me happy. I've mentioned time and again that all LK novels end with a happy ending. Some characters develop and some don't. Comparing this with the previous one, which was more character driven, this book focused more on the story, the mystery about Mireille, who's also known as Mira.

When she went out of the picture in the ending of the first book, I wondered about her and anticipated reading her story, and as usual I wasn't disappointed. Here we see a grown-up Mira as a mistress of a fifty-something peer. I was bothered by the setup until I read on and found out that everything was a charade.

When Mira met Alec, the tension, the attraction, and lust was immediately evident. They got off on a bad start due to Alec's snub-nosed judgment but as the story progressed, the attraction became intense to the point that while reading, I was palpitating 'cause I thought they might get caught.

Mira's past slowly unravels and I don't think it's all that bad, she felt guilty for all the things she did when she was with Guillaume, and this she can't confess to her husband. Even though Alec knew about Guillaume (who's a villain through and through), this didn't dampen his ardor for Mira.

This story was filled with emotion, a little humor, a lot of passionate love scenes, and some lines that moved me. I recommend this for the hardcore Kleypas fan. ( )