Читать книгу Notorious - Nicola Cornick, Nicola Cornick - Страница 3

Author Note

The Scandalous Women of the Ton are back! Or in this case, perhaps it should be the scandalous Men of the Ton …

James Devlin, cousin to Alex, the hero of Whisper of Scandal, has been one of London’s most shocking rakes. Now settled into a life of riches and respectability as the fiancé of a beautiful society heiress, Dev is terminally bored. Enter Caroline, Lady Carew, a woman with a mysterious past who knows enough about Dev to ruin his engagement and all his future prospects. But Lady Carew also has secrets to keep, for she is none other than a notorious match breaker, paid by rich parents to end unsuitable engagements …

Reading through the letters and accounts of the Regency period, I sometimes come across cases where fathers or trustees have paid off a man or a woman they consider unsuitable. Perhaps a son has fallen in love with a courtesan and wishes to marry her, or an heiress has taken a fancy to a poverty-stricken scoundrel and threatens to elope. In many instances, the parents or guardians are absolutely ruthless in removing the threat. In my imagination it was only a small step from there to the idea that a rich and determined parent might hire a heartbreaker to seduce their son away from his unsuitable fiancée. And so the idea for Notorious was born …

Notorious was huge fun to write and I very much hope that you enjoy it, too!

Nicola Cornick