The secret pearl pdf

Viola hated him for trying to take everything, including her soul. She was mistress of Pinewood Manor. Dudley held the deed, but at what cost? Each day under the same roof brought its share of temptation, intimacy, and guilt.

But Viola knew it was a battle she could not afford to lose. Against his better judgment, Lord Ferdinand Dudley was beguiled.

This maddening beauty had stirred him as no woman had before. And he was bound and determined to make her his own. Being intelligent, semi-street smart, and Cocky may be all that's needed to survive. A humorous journey towards tears caused by the real world. From Pearl Harbor to the shores of Sydney, a family secret that spans generations could unite a family — or destroy it. Honolulu, Hawaii On the evening of her sixteenth birthday party, Catherine McGarrie wants nothing more than for the night to be over, even though the opulence of the ballroom befits the daughter of a US Navy Rear Admiral.

Then she meets Charlie, a navy officer from the other side of the tracks, a man her parents would never approve of. As rumours of war threaten their tropical paradise, Catherine and Charlie fall in love. But the bombing of Pearl Harbor on 7th December changes their lives forever. Seventy—five years later, addled by age and painkillers, Catherine tells her granddaughter Kit her story and reveals the tale of a long—lost treasure. Can Kit uncover the secret and reunite her family?

Or will the truth tear them apart? Like Sebastian Faulks' heroine, Charlotte Gray, Pearl had a dual mission: to fight for her beloved, broken France and to find her lost love. Pearl's lover was a Parisian parfumier turned soldier, Henri Cornioley, who had been taken prisoner while serving in the French Logistics Corps and subsequently escaped from his German POW camp. Agent Pearl Witherington's wartime record is unique and heroic. As the only woman agent in the history of SOEs in France to have run a network, she became a fearless and legendary guerrilla leader organising, arming and training 3, Resistance fighters.

Pearl's story takes us from her harsh, impoverished childhood in Paris, to the lonely forests and farmhouses of the Loir-et-Cher where she would become a true 'warrior queen'. If you see a Google Drive link instead of source url, means that the file witch you will get after approval is just a summary of original book or the file has been already removed.

Loved each and every part of this book. I will definitely recommend this book to romance, historical romance lovers. Your Rating:. Your Comment:. Read Online Download. At least he thinks he is wicked,wicked,wicked. Even thou his wife will not touch him,his marriage is not consummated and his kid is actually his brothers bastard. So what ever. And even thou he is in love with the heroine,he tells her how he could not divorce. Becaus I know. Because of his kid. The kid would be crushed because she loves her mother.

Why does she love her mother? The mother rarely pays her any heed. And she is a really crappy mother in general. While the heroine is one of his daughters favorite people in the world. No matter He loves him for being so good.

Goody two shoes as I said. He was just so good you wanted to hurl from all the angst. He goes back to his wife. She is ill. She can not be ill! He will make her better! She must live! Because she is unhappy! Oh noo! What ever. His wife is a selfish bitch. Let her die. And she does. Not for a second thinking about her kid.

Now he will not ho straight to the heroine. He will take the year of mourning. Because he and his kid deserve it. What for? The bitch is dead! Long live the bitch! I mean she fu. After this he,you know,goes to the heroine,they will marry and live happy ever after. The whole book was just too much.

The heroines troubles, the heroes marriage, every last bit of this book! She is not even his? I love this author. As a given. But this book was just too much for my taste. What can I do. View all 17 comments. Aug 21, KatieV rated it it was amazing Shelves: disturbing-elements , hero-brooding-tortured , hero-dominate-alpha , pre-2k-oldie , hero-warrior-soldier , genre-historical , heroine-leaves-hero , heroine-virgin , locale-england , heroine-falsely-accused.

I was reluctant to read this. Adultery is not a good basis for romance, but the story is so much more than that and the adulterous parts are handled seriously and not glorified or lengthy. It is a very beautiful love story and a tear jerker. I'd encourage anyone hesitant because of the content to take a chance. It's important to note, that while the hero was married, his marriage was in name only.

His wife loved another man and was disgusted by the hero's scars from the Napoleonic war. He had lov I was reluctant to read this. He had loved her once and it was heartbreaking to read about his joyous return home from war only to find that his betrothed didn't want him back and found him disgusting.

Still, he tried his very best to make a good marriage out of what they had. Honestly, I would never have had the patience with the wife that the hero did. I realize part of it was because of the daughter, but still he was far more forgiving of her selfish, self-pitying behavior than I would have been. I pitied her as well, but it was more of in a 'how sad that you're so self-centered and weak that you can't make the best of life and pay more attention to your own desperately lonely child!

I don't believe I could have been as gentle with her as the hero was. When you read the first bleak chapter, you will find it hard to believe that the hero is actually a very honorable and selfless person. Balogh painted a great portrait of the complexities of the human psyche and the human failings even the best of us have.

The heroine was a strong, very courageous and honorable character as well. Obviously there is HEA or this wouldn't be a romance, but expect to cry quite a bit before you get there.

View 2 comments. This book, a Mary Balogh classic from , is gripping, dark, and ultimately uplifting. In the opening chapter, a man hires a young, sad looking woman outside Covent Garden and proceeds to have swift and rather brutal sex with her, realizing only after it's too late that she is a virgin.

Afterward, he is haunted by the memory and sends his secretary to track her down. Upon his master's order, the secretary hires her to be a governess to the master's five-year-old daughter. It's hard to know wha This book, a Mary Balogh classic from , is gripping, dark, and ultimately uplifting. It's hard to know what to think of this man, who turns out to be Adam Kent, the Duke of Ridgeway.

We gradually learn, however, that he is a kind, caring, morally decent man married uphappily to a woman who loathes him and cares not a whit for their daughter. Fleur, our heroine, does not realize who her benefactor is until after she's ensconced at the duke's country estate. Her reaction to him is one of loathing and fear, but gradually she learns to trust him and eventually to love him. The story is sweet but filled with obstacles -- not just romance-novelly frivolous obstacles -- but serious problems.

Highly recommended. Aug 30, kris rated it did not like it. The goodreads blurb and the library blurb, and probably the back cover blurb Here's a more accurate description, I think: Adam is a scarred veteran Duke, who hires a rather dreary-looking prostitute for an evening of forgetfulness one late night in London.

Upon taking Fleur to bed, he discovers that she was a virgin! So he hires the prostitute as a governess for his daughter! And finds himself even more a The goodreads blurb and the library blurb, and probably the back cover blurb And finds himself even more attracted to her! Therein follows a novel of angst and sturm und drang and drama before we get our damned HEA. He shows up to discover that everyone thinks he's dead and his brother the heir Thomas is now engaged to his former gf Sybil , who can no longer stand the sight of Adam.

Sybil discovers she is pregnant and tells Thomas so they can get married. Thomas decides that responsibility without the dukedom is kind of whack and bolts. Sybil takes his desertion to mean that Adam sent him away and decides she hates him but ends up agreeing to marry him anyway because she's pregnant. So he hires a prostitute!

And everything listed above. Her parents died when she was 8 and her cousins take her in. But then they abandon her with her creepy second cousin Matthew, who maybe wants to marry her? Or make her his mistress? Basically: he threatens her and she fights back and shoves his valet into the mantle. Thinking him dead, she flees to London to escape the noose. Thomas, with a scary new friend! The scary new friend is Matthew, the creepy second cousin.

I knew there was going to be a happy ending, but at what cost?? Mar 02, bookjunkie rated it it was amazing. It's am and I have to be up in 4 hours, but this story was so fucking beautiful I don't regret a thing.

Mary Balogh you are magic. Holy shit I loved this story. View 1 comment. Jun 27, Treece rated it really liked it Shelves: abusive-relationship , british-hero , cheers-for-underdogs , virgin-alert , byronic-arch-type-hero , culture-clash , erotically-inclined , ginger-hair-hero-heroine , ruff-ready-hero , dub-consent.

Balogh trusts her audience to understand and to come to their own conclusions. They are also quite weak, corrupted by social structures, forced into committing immoral acts in times of desperation. Adam is a long-suffering hero trapped in circumstances of his own making and others that are not his fault. Women had no power at all. They were subject to laws, society, tradition and fate. It was repugnant. Considering the roles men and women were forced to live by in this era, Balogh does succeed in bringing this unfortunate pair together.

She succeeds in making them sympathetic characters despite their actions. It is up to the reader to decide if they are held accountable for everything that unfolds. Even if their actions were not relatable or likable to me because of my personal beliefs, I could pray for their redemption through love and forgiveness. If you decide to read this book be warned. There is adultery, rape, and the mistreatment and dehumanization of women.

Sadly in , women are faced with various forms of violence , misogyny and abuse. It reminds you of where we are and how far we still need to go. View all 5 comments. Jun 22, KC rated it liked it Shelves: alpha-hero , virgin-heroine , heroine-i-must-kick-punch-slap , historical-romance , 3-stars-liked.

I find Mary Balogh's writing style to be formal and unemotional which prevents me from becoming completely invested in her stories. But I keep reading because her storylines are interesting and the obstacles she places in front of her protagonists seem impossible. And, wow, the conflicts Adam and Fleur faced certainly fit that category! Their journey wasn't an easy path, but this is a romance so they do find their happy ending. Adam was a wonderful hero and the true jewel or "secret pearl" of thi I find Mary Balogh's writing style to be formal and unemotional which prevents me from becoming completely invested in her stories.

Adam was a wonderful hero and the true jewel or "secret pearl" of this book. I loved his code of honor, loyalty, and compassion for others. He was still in love with her and had wanted to give her security in light of his brother's abandonment.

In contrast to Adam I didn't like Fleur as much because of her martyrdom complex. She made the idea of becoming a prostitute a bigger deal than it needed to be. Fleur did what had to be done in order to not starve, but instead of feeling pride for her courage placed too much shame upon herself. A shame which actually felt more like self-pity considering how very brief her illicit career had been.

Dec 08, Aneca rated it really liked it Shelves: read-in The Secret Pearl is another book where Mrs. Balogh uses a different, and for many authors and readers, forbidden theme as a plot device. At the beginning of the story, the heroine decides to work as a prostitute!

This is not a spoiler as it does happen in the first pages. The hero is leaving the theatre one night when he sees a prostitute in the shadows, he asks her her price and he takes to an inn where the consummate the act. However she touches him in some way and realising she had been a vir The Secret Pearl is another book where Mrs. However she touches him in some way and realising she had been a virgin and seems starving he buys her dinner. Fleur, our heroine, decided on prostitution as a last resort to feed herself and pay her bills but she had no idea how she would feel about it afterwards.

After spending a few days closeted in her room she decides to look for a job again. Meanwhile, the hero, the Duke of Ridgeway has spent some time thinking on the young prostitute he engaged for the night, he realises that she has refined manners and is probably just down on her luck and decides to send his secretary to the job agencies to see if he finds someone by the name of Fleur looking for work.

He does and that is how Fleur, quite unexpectedly finds herself as the new governess of the Duke's daughter. Fleur has no idea who hired her. She is immediately sent to the country, where the child and the Duchess are, and she applies herself to her new duties.

When the Duke finally decides to visit she is shocked and scared when she recognises him. She has to live side by side with the man who knows her shame and hurt her and he seems to want some kind of relationship with her. Adam, the Duke, is trapped in an unhappy marriage and now he feels responsible for the young woman he ended up ruining and hurting without meaning to, he wants to give her a chance in their world again but she has a natural distrust of him that is not easy to overcome.

Besides this very bad start both Adam and Fleur have situation and people in their past who trouble them. This accounts for some of their choices and behaviours.

Adam seems cold and remote but you see that he really loves his daughter and that he tries to be fair in all his dealings with people. Fleur is easier to like although for a time you just don't realise what made her act like she did. Although this may seem like a very convoluted story the fact is that Ms Balogh makes it all work. And I appreciated the happy ending all the more because it seemed so difficult to reach. I suppose some readers might not like the prostitution thing and the adultery associated with the first scene but, if you can overlook that, this is an intense, poignant story where two people find love.

It's not easy to read, it is emotional and sometime heart wrenching but I found it a very worthy read! Grade: 4. View all 3 comments. Don't you hate when a book has no epilogue? I am distressed, I wanted the epilogue! Hehehe Okay, I don't abide with adultery, but this book shows that not everything is simple as black and white.

There are many and many shades of gray in between and if you save your prejudices until you understand the whole of it, maybe you can forgive the hero and even like this book. But be warned, the book starts in a very shocking manner of a woman selling the only thing she has left before she starves to de Don't you hate when a book has no epilogue?

But be warned, the book starts in a very shocking manner of a woman selling the only thing she has left before she starves to death, her body. It was a very shocking encounter plus discovering afterwards the adultery, but I wanted to understand the heroine reasons and so I kept going and I am glad I did. I had such a strong dislike towards the hero's wife and his brother that I felt like I wanted to physically hurt them. Specially the wife, she was horrid. But sometimes I also disliked the hero.

He was too understanding, too selfless, too good, too faithful to someone that did not deserve. He did not deserve what he got from life, the misery of it all. To be painted as the villain when all he did was take care of everybody around him. And he never spoke up for himself. Sometimes I wanted to slap him for not doing anything. For accepting the misery of it all After so much misery, we don't get to see the happiness.

Jan 14, StMargarets rated it it was amazing Shelves: cheating-explored , second-chance , 5-star , angst-by-injustice , historical , author-mary-balogh. Mary Balogh loves redemption and often creates characters with so much baggage you wonder how she will ever win the reader over and give them a plausible HEA. This novel starts dark and moves to the light. Reading it was a visceral experience at times. I don't know if I ever want to read it again, but I'm glad I did.

Oct 23, Carol Storm rated it it was amazing. The best of the best -- the genius of Mary Balogh is that she can create a story that begins in the most sordid way possible, and love still triumphs. Apr 06, Amy rated it really liked it Shelves: Accidentally read this when I was supposed to be working. Once I started I couldn't put it down. Great plot. I now plan to read all the Mary Balogh books!

View all 4 comments. Jun 13, i r e n e rated it it was amazing Shelves: historical-romances , i-cried-and-i-liked-it , i-love-mary-balogh. He would be happy again and happy forever. He would open the oyster shell and find the pearl within.

I can't remember the last time a romance made me want to scream and cry but The Secret Pearl by Mary Balogh is simply amazing. I was hooked from the first page. I loved everything about it - the engaging writing style, the nuanced character development, the good plot, and the surge of emotions Balogh made us feel for everyone.