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    Dearly Beloved
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    Dearly Beloved
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    Dearly Beloved
    Ebook542 pages8 hours

    Dearly Beloved

    By Mary Jo Putney

    3.5/5

    ()

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    About this ebook

    As enigmatic as she is beautiful, Diana Lindsay is the most desirable and sought after woman in London, her smile worth a prince’s ransom. Yet Diana wants only one man—a haunted lord with mysterious secrets as deep as hers.

    Gervase Brandelin, Viscount St. Aubyn, dedicated himself to the service of his country as a way to redeem the sins of his youth. As a spymaster, he seeks out Britain’s hidden enemies and nothing can sway him from his duty, until he meets a woman who touches his heart even more than she dazzles his senses. In Diana he finds warmth and hope, yet he is bitterly aware that she can never be his.

    Then the two halves of Gervase’s life come together in a cataclysm that threatens to separate him from Diana forever. Perhaps love might bring them together, but first they must survive the assault of a deadly enemy.

    Dearly Beloved was nominated for RWA’s Book of the Year award and won the Golden Leaf Award for Best Historical Romance from the New Jersey Romance Writers.


    “Dearly Beloved sets a new standard of excellence for historical romance. One of the best books of this or any other year,”

    --Melinda Helfer, Romantic Times

    “Brimming with betrayal, passion, intrigue and love, Dearly Beloved is a novel that no romance reader should miss….one of my all time favorites…It's a novel that will touch your heart, and a perfect example of what a romance novel should be.”

    --Terrie Figueroa,www.romrevtoday.com

    “Marvelous characters and excellent plotting…charming and wonderfully romantic.”
    Affaire de Coeur
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherePublishing Works
    Release dateMay 10, 2013
    ISBN9781614174233
    Author

    Mary Jo Putney

    Mary Jo Putney was born in upstate New York with a reading addiction, a condition for which there is no known cure. After earning degrees in English Literature and Industrial Design at Syracuse University, she became a ten-time finalist for the Romance Writers of America RITA, has published over forty books, and was the recipient of the 2013 RWA Nora Roberts Lifetime Achievement Award. She lives in Baltimore, Maryland.

    Read more from Mary Jo Putney

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    Reviews for Dearly Beloved

    3.5/5

    61 ratings4 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Good book about two emotionally wounded people. It opens with a young Gervase who, in a moment of drunken idiocy, compromises a young woman. He retains enough of his gentleman's code to marry the girl but also takes revenge for what he sees as entrapment. Devastated when he realizes the truth, he takes steps to care for the girl, yet also to avoid ever having to see her again.I will say that Gervase did not endear himself to me in these opening pages. He was selfish, thoughtless, and cruel. I wasn't sure that he was at all redeemable. He is rightfully haunted by what he did, which drives him to find ways to ease his conscience. When the story resumes eight years later, Gervase is back in England after inheriting the title and continuing his service to England. He is emotionally closed off, allowing no one past the walls around his heart. So he is surprised and dismayed by the strength of his attraction to London's newest courtesan.When we first meet Diana, she and her son and a friend live in a cottage in Yorkshire. It is the middle of winter, and during a vicious snowstorm, she rescues a woman who was a former courtesan. After nursing Maddy back to health, they become friends. Diana discovers that the stories Maddy tells appeal to the restlessness she feels. Something tells her that if she takes up that life, maybe she will find the love that she craves. But the man she is most drawn to is the least likely to give her what she needs.The development of the relationship between Diana and Gervase is a rollercoaster of emotions. Both are wary of the strength of their attraction and the depth of the connection they feel. Gervase is a man whose trust in women was destroyed long ago in a most devastating way. He is determined to protect himself and uses that distrust like a shield. Though part of him wants to believe in Diana's goodness and the happiness he feels when he is with her, his skepticism is never far away. Diana is frequently overwhelmed by the strength of her feelings for Gervase, but also fears that giving in to those feelings without an equal return will cause her to lose sight of her own needs.This is not a fast-paced romance. Instead, Gervase and Diana spend time together over many months, both in bed and out of it. I liked seeing Gervase slowly begin to exhibit his emotions. I especially enjoyed his connection with Diana's son. There were some pretty sweet scenes between them. However, Gervase's demons still made frequent appearances, most notably in his outbursts of jealousy. Diana is not free of her own issues. There are parts of her past that she needs to share with him, but she's afraid that it will drive him away. The longer she puts it off, the harder it becomes. When matters come to the points where both reveal their pasts, it is just as bad as she feared. Both of them frustrated me because of their attitudes. Diana made some excellent points about Gervase's actions, and I liked that he accepted the truth of them and sought to make changes. But she wasn't free of guilt herself, and the way she revealed her past only made things worse. Everything she said ran up against Gervase's fears and beliefs, causing him to believe the worst of her. I wondered how they could ever get past the things that were said and done.Gervase did his usual shove everything he didn't want to think of behind a locked door in his mind and tried to lose himself in work. On the other hand, Diana still didn't give up hope that they could overcome it all and have that future she dreamed of. I enjoyed her arrival at the house party, and the after-dinner scene was marvelous. I loved how she handled herself and turned things her way. I still wanted to shake Gervase for his blindness and loved seeing his cousin tear into him. But it took nearly losing her for Gervase to finally let down his walls and allow Diana into his heart.Running through the book was also an element of suspense. As a spymaster, Gervase actively works to help Britain in its efforts to bring down Napoleon. There is one particular French spy that he is determined to stop if he could only get the proof needed. This particular spy also has an unhealthy interest in Diana. The depth of his depravity and his determination to have Diana are another element of tension throughout the book. The final confrontation with him was a nail-biter and I genuinely feared for the safety of both Diana and Gervase. The way the spy was brought down was poetic justice and extremely satisfying.
    • 4/5
      Diana Lindsey is raising her young son in the countryside of Yorkshire when she rescues a woman lost in a snowstorm. It turns out the woman is a courtesan; her lifestyle intrigues Diana who feels that being ruined doesn't allow for a future marriage. They go to London where Diana meets Gervase Brandelin, Viscount St Aubyn, and current spymaster for the English against Napoleon. She becomes his mistress, but they are both harboring deep secrets. And there's danger from a French spy who wants to destroy them both.This is a reprint from 1990, one of Ms. Putney's older books. It's a very dark book with rape, incest, and other scenes that will disturb some readers. It's also a story about redemption for two damaged souls. It is hard to like both characters at first. I didn't really get Diana's need to become a courtesan, and Gervase is a hard man, cold and unlikeable. As the book goes on, the reader realizes that Diana is driven by a strong belief in fate. Gervase unbends, though it takes him quite a while.The story is a bit soap-opera ish (the villain especially), but Ms. Putney is a compelling writer who takes the reader into the story, even if one's stomach is a bit queasy in places.
    • 3/5
      Originally published in 1990, this has not aged well.It begins with the male lead raping a young woman. He is drunk enough to think that she is the barmaid he has made a rendezvous with, and once he realizes what happened he is full of guilt and self-loathing, but that doesn't excuse it.Well-written, with good characterizations, but I didn't much enjoy it and can't in good conscience recommend it.
    • 5/5
      This emotionally intense story tells of a hero consumed by regret and guilt over two separate heinous acts committed early in his life. Gervase Brandelin has dealt with his feelings of guilt and worthlessness by burying his emotions deeply. These two life-altering events also involved betrayal. He is cold, suspicious and trusts no one except his cousin and heir, Francis.Diana Lindsay, in contrast, lives life through her emotions and instinct. She too has been through extreme trama in her youth, but instead of becoming a victim has decided to take charge of her life, and to give and receive love. The focus of her love is her epileptic young son conceived by force directly after a shot-gun marriage.The events that bring these ying and yang protagonists together are powerful, emotionally charged, and have an internal logic. The reader is given cues throughout the story so that we are more than one step of the protagonists in the events of this tightly-woven story, but there are still numerous surprise twists and turns. This is quite a dark tale, but life transforming love does ultimately triumph.