Angel in a Devil’s Arms

The delightful second regency romance in the Palace of Rogues series (after Lady Derring Takes a Lover) returns to the converted London boardinghouse that once was the Palace of Rogues, but shifts focus onto co-owner Angelique Breedlove. Angelique’s determination to build a respectable reputation is threatened when the notoriously rakish Lucien Durand, who has been presumed dead for 10 years, requests a room at the Palace. Lucien has returned to London to seek revenge on those who drove him away, but he becomes more invested in Angelique and the other inhabitants of the boarding house than in revisiting his past. Angelique and Lucien are sides of a coin, both seeking to overcome shadowy pasts but with vastly different approaches. The growing relationships between the illegitimate Lucien and his legitimate half-brother and between Angelique and her clumsy maidservant add depth to the story, while Long’s focus on the lives of the middle-class lodgers at the Palace is refreshing. Readers will enjoy this rich depiction of how the past informs but does not dictate the future. Agent: Steve Axelrod, Axelrod Agency. (Nov.)