Harper Mass Market (Paperback),
ISBN 0061013897
Lady Adriana St. Ives is a woman disgraced. Five years ago, she engaged in an affair with the king's bastard son. The affair ended when Julian, Adriana's older brother, shot the king's son and fled England, taking Adriana's half-brother Gabriel with him.  

Now, one year after the death of her father, Adriana reluctantly enters into a marriage arranged by her father prior to his death in order to keep her family from financial ruin. She meets Tynan Spencer, her Irish fiancee, for the first time on her wedding day, and sparks fly. Tynan and Adriana each have their own agendas and personal demons, and their unwillingness to share that information creates much interesting by-play.  

When Julian and Gabriel return unexpectedly, all the old gossip resurfaces. The law wants its pound of flesh too. This gives Tynan the opportunity to play the hero for his wife's family. But will saving Adriana's family mean giving up all Tynan came to England to do?  

In The Black Angel, Barbara Samuel provides readers a competent, well-written story of two tortured souls searching for peace within their circumstances and the Georgian society in which they live. The book reads well, but for me, it never made the leap into spectacular. I found the characters' angst wearing, and I often wanted to shake the heroine by the shoulders and tell her to snap out of it. However, Samuels accurately portrays the unfair double standard of the Ton and the lasting results of crossing the line of what society considers "decent."  

Gina Hodges Martin

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