Unveiled by Courtney Milan

And ye shall tread down the wicked, for they shall be ashes under the soles of
your feet. - Malachi 4:3.

As much as he hates the name he was given by his religiously overzealous mother, he has every intention of living up to it. Mr. Ash Turner has spent the better part of his life watching, waiting for his chance to mete out revenge on his bitter enemy, the Duke of Palford. Now that the means have been laid at his feet, he’ll stop at nothing to see justice served. But will revenge be as sweet as he had always imagined it would be? The answer might just surprise him.

Lady Anna Margaret Dalrymple has found herself in a most unfortunate situation. Until recently, she was the daughter of a duke – the Duke of Palford – and enjoyed a life of comfort meant only for upper society. But now, evidence has come out proving that her father is a bigamist and that she and her brothers are bastards. And if that weren’t bad enough, with her father dying and no legitimate heirs to inherit the title, a distant cousin has decided to lay claim to the dukedom and that distant cousin is Ash Turner. Now it’s up to Lady Anna to help her brothers fight Mr. Turner’s claim by digging up anything she can on him that will prove him unfit to hold the title.

Ash Turner is the kind of hero I can honestly say I’d be attracted to outside of a book, which took me by surprise. Truly, how could I possibly come to care about someone who was willing to ruin the lives of innocents just to better the lives of himself and his brothers? Well, Ms. Milan pulled it off with skill and in doing so has given me another perfectly matched pair to add to my list of Top Ten Couples. Ash might be ruthless, but much to Lady Anna’s chagrin, he’s also honorable, kind, generous and fiercely loyal to those he loves. And he has a secret shame that no one, not even his brothers, know about, and one that had me in tears because for all his ruthlessness, he was so very vulnerable.

Lady Anna is such a wonderful character! She has a strength about her that we don’t often find in historical romance heroines. She’s willing to do whatever she has to do to protect her family, but when she gets to know Ash better, to see him for the man he truly is and not just the man he allows others to see, will she be able to follow through with her plan and betray him, using the knowledge he’s entrusted to her against him?

Throughout the story I was kept guessing as to how their differences could possibly be resolved allowing for both of their happiness, and in the end, I was very pleased with how things worked out, especially since it wasn’t something I had seen coming!

With Unveiled, Courtney Milan has given us a moving, romantic, passionate and sexy story. It’s a tale of deception, bitterness and loneliness, but it’s also a beautiful story about compassion, forgiveness and, under the most difficult of circumstances, finding that one person who loves you for everything you are and everything you are not. The person who is destined to give you the kind of happily ever after you didn’t believe existed.

5/5 Stars