Liz Carlyle is, undoubtedly, one of the very best authors today of historical romance who, even when she’s not quite at the top of her game, writes consistently good – and sometimes great – novels. So, even though Three Little Secrets isn’t among the author’s best, it is still vastly superior to the majority of books in the genre today.

Going right along with the author’s long-standing affection for interconnecting characters from book to book, Merrick MacLachlan, the hero of Three Little Secrets, is the brother of Alasdair from One Little Sin, the first book in this series. A wealthy and exceedingly ambitious architect whose business practices lean a bit towards the ruthless side, Merrick satisfies his sexual desires with nameless and faceless prostitutes and keeps his emotions tightly controlled. Merrick, it seems, has never recovered from the betrayal of the woman he loved and married briefly some twelve years earlier.

After living most of her life in the country, Madeleine, Lady Besset, arrives in London with plans to settle into a new house in a London “village” under construction. Of course, what Maddie doesn’t know is that Merrick – the man she married and believes betrayed her years earlier – is also the man from whom she has actually purchased her home. Preoccupied with the need to find help for her son who suffers from mysterious “spells” in which he says and does odd things, the last thing Maddie needs is to find herself tied in any way to the man she has never forgiven.

Of course, neither Merrick nor Maddie are happy to discover each other again, but unhappier surprises await Maddie when she discovers the truth that Merrick already knows: Though Maddie believed her father’s tale that their marriage was annulled and that Merrick was bribed to abandon her, the two are, in fact, still married, rendering Maddie’s later marriage illegal and her son illegitimate.

I have to admit that I’m not nuts about books in which the hero and heroine are hostile to each other for most of the book, so Merrick and Maddie’s extreme antipathy towards each other because of their erronious beliefs about each other did begin to grate. But, on the positive side, both characters are so well drawn that their conflict always seemed real and understandable and, without too many delays, the two do eventually talk, keeping any frustration over the Big Mis to a minimum. Merrick, especially, is a fully three-dimensional character for whom it’s easy to feel empathy. He is a man who has hit emotional rock bottom as a scene with a sadistic prostitute reveals, and his redemption through reconciliation with Maddie is one of the best reasons to read this book. If Maddie feels just a shade more generic, she is, nonetheless, a likable, sympathetic, and believable heroine.

On the plus side, as well, is the author’s wonderful prose and her ability to weave into the plot a variety of interesting and often amusing characters, not to mention appearances from those from previous books with whom it is always nice to visit. Also on the positive side is the fact that there is never a Wallpapper-y feel to a Liz Carlyle novel and her characters, while appealing to the modern reader, don’t come across as 21st century women in 19th century garb. In short, it’s obvious that she respects her readers and sincerely cares about getting it right.

So, ultimately, even though Three Little Secrets isn’t one of the author’s best, it is, nevertheless, a solid novel that merits a strong recommendation. If it’s no more than a good wrap-up to a slightly above average series, that fact alone makes it a clear stand out in today’s all too crowded marketplace of Wallpaper historicals.