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Midnight Lady
Kyla Van Vleet has journeyed from India with proof of her right to share in the late Duke of Wolverton's estate and repay the many kindnesses of the stepfather who raised her. But this ravishing young woman hasn't counted on the cold cunning of the Duke's acknowledged heirs--or the disarming gaze of the brash American who is next in line for the title. The charming but arrogant new Duke is Brett Banning, and to him Kyla is a gypsyish hoyden bent on besmirching the family name. But there is something about his commanding boldness that draws Kyla ever closer to a maelstrom of unbridled desire, even if her pounding heart leads her into the bedchamber of His Grace's country estate. Now this willful lady must gather her courage and dignity to command her own destiny. For the gossips of London keep no secrets, and a passion that blazes at midnight can either warm two hearts for a lifetime. . . or consume everything it touches.
400 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1997
3 people are currently reading
293 people want to read
About the author
Rosemary Rogers
111 books420 followersThere is more than one author with this name
Rosemary Jansz Navaratnam Rogers Kadison
Rosemary Jansz was born on 7 December 1932 in Panadura, British Ceylon (now known as Sri Lanka), she was the oldest child of Dutch-Portuguese settlers, Barbara "Allan" and Cyril Jansz. Her father was a wealthy educator who owned three posh private schools. She was raised in colonial splendor: dozens of servants, no work, summers at European spas, a chaperone everywhere she went. A dreamy child, she wrote her first novel at eight, and all through her teens scribbled madly romantic epics in imitation of her favorite writers: Sir Walter Scott, Alexandre Dumas and Rafael Sabatini.
At 17, Rosemary rebelled against a feudal upbringing and went to the University of Ceylon, where she studied three years. She horrified her family by taking a job as a reporter, and two years later marrying with Summa Navaratnam, a Ceylonese track star known as "the fastest man in Asia." The marriage had two daughters. Unhappily, he often sprinted after other women. Disappointed with her husband, in 1960, she moved with her two daughters and took off for London.
In Europe she met her future second husband, Leroy Rogers, an african-american. "He was the first man," she recalls, "who made me feel like a real woman." After getting a divorce from her first husband, she married Rogers in his home town, St. Louis, Missouri. They moved with her family to California, where she had two sons. Six years later, when that marriage broke up, Rosemary was left with four children to support on her $4,200 salary as a typist for the Solano County Parks Department. In 1969, in the face of a socialist takeover of Ceylon, her parents fled the island with only ?100, giving Rosemary two more dependents. At 37, the rich girl from Ceylon was on her uppers in Fairfield.
Every night for a year, Rogers worked to perfect a manuscript that she had written as a child, rewriting it 24 times. When she was satisfied with her work, she sent the manuscript to Avon, which quickly purchased the novel. That novel, ''Sweet Savage Love'', skyrocketed to the top of bestseller lists, and became one of the most popular historical romances of all time. Her second novel, ''Dark Fires'', sold two million copies in its first three months of release. Her first three novels sold a combined 10 million copies. The fourth, ''Wicked Loving Lies'' sold 3 million copies in its first month of publication. Rosemary Rogers became one of the legendaries "Avon Queens of Historical Romance". The difference between she and most of others romance writers is not the violence of her stories, it is the intensity. She says: "My heroines are me", and certainly her life could be one of her novels.
In September of 1984, Rosemary married a third time with Christopher Kadison, but it was a very brief marriage and they soon began to live apart. "I'd like to live with a man," she admits, "but I find men in real life don't come up to my fantasies. I want culture, spirit and sex all rolled up together."
Today single, Rosemary lives quietly in a small dramatic villa perched on a crag above the Pacific near Carmel. Her four children are now away from home and she continues to write.
Rosemary passed away at the age of 87 on November 12, 2019 in Carmel, California where she called home since the early 1970s.
Rosemary Jansz Navaratnam Rogers Kadison
Rosemary Jansz was born on 7 December 1932 in Panadura, British Ceylon (now known as Sri Lanka), she was the oldest child of Dutch-Portuguese settlers, Barbara "Allan" and Cyril Jansz. Her father was a wealthy educator who owned three posh private schools. She was raised in colonial splendor: dozens of servants, no work, summers at European spas, a chaperone everywhere she went. A dreamy child, she wrote her first novel at eight, and all through her teens scribbled madly romantic epics in imitation of her favorite writers: Sir Walter Scott, Alexandre Dumas and Rafael Sabatini.
At 17, Rosemary rebelled against a feudal upbringing and went to the University of Ceylon, where she studied three years. She horrified her family by taking a job as a reporter, and two years later marrying with Summa Navaratnam, a Ceylonese track star known as "the fastest man in Asia." The marriage had two daughters. Unhappily, he often sprinted after other women. Disappointed with her husband, in 1960, she moved with her two daughters and took off for London.
In Europe she met her future second husband, Leroy Rogers, an african-american. "He was the first man," she recalls, "who made me feel like a real woman." After getting a divorce from her first husband, she married Rogers in his home town, St. Louis, Missouri. They moved with her family to California, where she had two sons. Six years later, when that marriage broke up, Rosemary was left with four children to support on her $4,200 salary as a typist for the Solano County Parks Department. In 1969, in the face of a socialist takeover of Ceylon, her parents fled the island with only ?100, giving Rosemary two more dependents. At 37, the rich girl from Ceylon was on her uppers in Fairfield.
Every night for a year, Rogers worked to perfect a manuscript that she had written as a child, rewriting it 24 times. When she was satisfied with her work, she sent the manuscript to Avon, which quickly purchased the novel. That novel, ''Sweet Savage Love'', skyrocketed to the top of bestseller lists, and became one of the most popular historical romances of all time. Her second novel, ''Dark Fires'', sold two million copies in its first three months of release. Her first three novels sold a combined 10 million copies. The fourth, ''Wicked Loving Lies'' sold 3 million copies in its first month of publication. Rosemary Rogers became one of the legendaries "Avon Queens of Historical Romance". The difference between she and most of others romance writers is not the violence of her stories, it is the intensity. She says: "My heroines are me", and certainly her life could be one of her novels.
In September of 1984, Rosemary married a third time with Christopher Kadison, but it was a very brief marriage and they soon began to live apart. "I'd like to live with a man," she admits, "but I find men in real life don't come up to my fantasies. I want culture, spirit and sex all rolled up together."
Today single, Rosemary lives quietly in a small dramatic villa perched on a crag above the Pacific near Carmel. Her four children are now away from home and she continues to write.
Rosemary passed away at the age of 87 on November 12, 2019 in Carmel, California where she called home since the early 1970s.
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Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews
September 9, 2023
Brett is a arrogant do as I say man . Kyla is a lady who doesn’t listen to him. This causes lots of problems for them both.
December 24, 2014
There was just so much wrong with this book I couldn't. Brett his character is so dominating, controlling and selfish it wasn't the least bit attractive; I felt like he came off far too strong and crossed many lines. He was insensitive to Kyla (the man was barbaric in taking her virginity) constantly degraded her as a woman, betrayed her and used her to get revenge on others. He never had anything nice to say to or about her either. He seemed more of an arrogant self-driven antagonist than anything else. I mean really, it was either she sold her body to him or be sent to prison? What kind of respectable man gives a woman those kinds of options? Granted Kyla apparently likes her men like this or something and she was just.... It was just a... I didn't like it. I tried to, I really did but it just was not my cup of tea.
April 21, 2014
Yeah I am ashamed of myself. Brett was a real jerk, but I kept reading. I was interested. In real life I would have avoided this guy. I could tuck this book under my covers and avoid him if I wanted to.. After all it's just a book. I do like train-wrecks sometimes. Not every hero, if you want to call him that, is deserving or nice but if it keeps me interested I can't rate it low. I even read it again. Avoid if you are looking for gooey, sugar sweet, romance. The truth is I get that in my real life so I have to read about train-wrecks to remind myself how lucky I am. Thanks Ms. Rosemary Rogers.
special-unread-plot
May 8, 2022When I read a book with a BASTARD ASSOHOLE BITCH H the only thing that is making me go on reading the book is his REDEMPTION and the book's LOGIC!!! There is mentioned that the H already had a virgin ow that he made pregnant and she died with the child. Fast forward, he blackmailed the h and made her his mistress, then tried to marry her off to someone else as used goods. The h also was a doormat, like her mother. She let him use herself as he wanted. At first I thought that she would be strong and feisty but no, the h was worse than the harlequin heroines with a weak body
January 11, 2020
Good lord. I expected Kyla to be to stupid to live. But she ended up being likeable. Brett is actual human garbage and I haven't hated a male lead like this since Surrender to Love.
Read this while drunk. I wish I had.
Read this while drunk. I wish I had.
March 3, 2011
This is my third book by Rosemary Rogers, and I knew her controlling alpha-male characters tred very close to the line between dark and evil, but in this case, Bret crossed it. I made it through a little over half this book before giving up (and I only made it that far because of previous experience with the author), but I just can't get around the fact that he raped her. Oh, I suppose her body responded (yeah, right), but when you give a woman a choice between becoming your mistress and going to prison...well, I just can't call that consenting. But the guy does worse than that. He publically humiliates her, ruins her chances for her own HEA, uses her as bait in a scheme to catch someone who wronged him, and verbally abuses her at every opportunity. I don't want these two to get together. I want her to get enough of a spine to get away from him. The best thing I can say about this guy is that he is disgusted by the villain who rapes 5-year-old girls. I supose raping a 21-year-old is marginally better.
So, yeah, don't read this book.
So, yeah, don't read this book.
August 13, 2015
I hated giving this book a one star but really the storyline was pathetic, Brett was abusive and sorry but psycho, Kyla I never understood watch she was trying to prove, and then to make a bad book even more horrible the ending was completely rushed and how someone can go from being a major Douche to madly in love well confounds me. Is it asking to much for just a tiny bit of consistency? That being said after reading this complete and total garbage I've decided that I should write a story myself. I am quite certain that even at a first try it would be a million times better than this.
July 17, 2017
I've never been disappointed by Rosemary Rogers. I saw some nasty reviews on this book crying rape and I don't agree. When the author described her heightened arousal, I can't imagine that qualifies. You know what I saw in this book? Foreplay. Both of the characters hating each other when they really don't. It classic, good old romance.
November 6, 2019
Classic Rosemary Rogers. She's great for a quick, mindless read. Yes, there is a rape and she ends up forgiving him -- something that would not fly today. What kind of gets lost in the domestic violence of the story is that the heroine is really the one in charge.
January 20, 2019
Im abt to read dis book..... Ive been looking for dis book for years now, i was reading d hard copy when i misplaced it... Ive been to so many book shops n library but couldnt find it
April 24, 2025
Unrealistic behaviour and thoughts from the two main characters most of the time.
maybe
July 9, 2025Note to me - H is very bad. Beware.
January 15, 2020
Great book!
April 12, 2016
This book was published in 1997 but it seemed so much like an older book. In fact, while I wasn’t very far into the story, I kept going to the front of the book to check the publication date because I was sure this was an 80s book. I’d had the book for six years and finally got around to it last week. It’s the fifth Rosemary Rogers book that I’ve read. It was part of a set of 10 that I’d gotten off the ever popular Ebay in 2004. I enjoyed this book more towards the beginning than I did the last part of it.
The hero, Brett Banning, was totally alpha, very forceful and the heroine, Kyla, was a bit fiesty, like I like. I’m a little surprised she gave in to being Brett’s mistress so darn quickly. I don’t think the HEA (happily ever after) was belivable and it didn’t happen until the last few pages. The story didn’t get bogged down with history like some of her books can. It was a pretty simply, easy-to-follow plot. I don’t buy the coincidence that the man Kyla was to marry just happened to the man who stole Brett’s important papers. So overall, I liked this book OK and I’d grade it maybe a very low B-. Though there was no abuse toward the heroine by anyone, I do consider this a bodice ripper because the hero was so strong and arrogant and he just had to have the heroine…and told her so!
The rest of Rosemary’s novels are:
•Sweet Savage Love 1974
•The Wildest Heart 1974
•Dark Fires 1975
•Wicked Loving Lies 1976
• The Crowd Pleasers (contemporary) 1978
•The Insiders (contemporary) 1979
•Lost Love, Last Love 1980
•Love Play (contemporary) 1981
•Surrender to Love 1982
•The Wanton 1985
•Bound by Desire 1985
•The Tea Planter’s Bride 1995
• A Dangerous Man 1996
•Midnight Lady 1987
•All I Desire 1998
•In Your Arms 2000
•Savage Desire 2000
•A Reckless Encounter 2001
•An Honorable Man 2002
•Return to Me 2003
•Jewel of My Heart 2004
•Sapphire 2005
•A Daring Passion 2007
•Scandalous Deception 2008
•Bound By Love 2009
•Scoundrel’s Honor 2010
The hero, Brett Banning, was totally alpha, very forceful and the heroine, Kyla, was a bit fiesty, like I like. I’m a little surprised she gave in to being Brett’s mistress so darn quickly. I don’t think the HEA (happily ever after) was belivable and it didn’t happen until the last few pages. The story didn’t get bogged down with history like some of her books can. It was a pretty simply, easy-to-follow plot. I don’t buy the coincidence that the man Kyla was to marry just happened to the man who stole Brett’s important papers. So overall, I liked this book OK and I’d grade it maybe a very low B-. Though there was no abuse toward the heroine by anyone, I do consider this a bodice ripper because the hero was so strong and arrogant and he just had to have the heroine…and told her so!
The rest of Rosemary’s novels are:
•Sweet Savage Love 1974
•The Wildest Heart 1974
•Dark Fires 1975
•Wicked Loving Lies 1976
• The Crowd Pleasers (contemporary) 1978
•The Insiders (contemporary) 1979
•Lost Love, Last Love 1980
•Love Play (contemporary) 1981
•Surrender to Love 1982
•The Wanton 1985
•Bound by Desire 1985
•The Tea Planter’s Bride 1995
• A Dangerous Man 1996
•Midnight Lady 1987
•All I Desire 1998
•In Your Arms 2000
•Savage Desire 2000
•A Reckless Encounter 2001
•An Honorable Man 2002
•Return to Me 2003
•Jewel of My Heart 2004
•Sapphire 2005
•A Daring Passion 2007
•Scandalous Deception 2008
•Bound By Love 2009
•Scoundrel’s Honor 2010
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 5, 2016
I read the whole thing only because once I start a book I have to finish it. This was terrible, I am a fan of Rosemary Rogers but this was the worst book that I have read from this author. First, what does the title mean? Midnight Lady? Kayla was not a prostitute unless the author made her one. The characters were poorly defined. Why was Brett such an ass? It should have explained, not that it would have made me like him any better, but..... And Godfrey. Why did we not get more about him. Was there another book somewhere that I missed that explained them? It was so disjointed that it made no sense, my opinion. I will have to go back and read something good from Rosemary Rogers just to forget I read this.
September 9, 2016
This he got to be THE WORST book I have ever read...
Brett is basically a self centered, manipulative, arrogant, domineering rapist.
Kyla, is weak, stupid and ughhh!!! I can't even find the right words to describe them both!!
What a terrible work?!
The only man suitable for her in the novel is Godfrey... He is more befitting of a hero than that cruel Brett, whom I despised from beginning to end. . .
No mention was even made of what happened to Kyla's step dad in the end...
The ending is as if the author got tired of writing and ran out of ideas.
I cannot see a HEA for these two..
Brett is basically a self centered, manipulative, arrogant, domineering rapist.
Kyla, is weak, stupid and ughhh!!! I can't even find the right words to describe them both!!
What a terrible work?!
The only man suitable for her in the novel is Godfrey... He is more befitting of a hero than that cruel Brett, whom I despised from beginning to end. . .
No mention was even made of what happened to Kyla's step dad in the end...
The ending is as if the author got tired of writing and ran out of ideas.
I cannot see a HEA for these two..
May 29, 2021
Brett is the definition of a Controlling, Abusive, Asshole, Jerk boyfriend. The way he treats Kyla at times is awful and deplorable. The sad part is Kyla gives in to him everytime and instead of running far faaar away from him, she marries him and it's all hearts and flowers and happily ever after. Ugh!
January 13, 2015
Wasn't able to finish this book. I got through a third or so of it and found nothing like able about the supposed "hero". He was awful and the heroine upsetting after what he did her. Didn't want to be further upset when the story took its necessary turn to allow for a romance between the two.
February 2, 2009
Another semi awkward romance novel but really good
December 6, 2013
This book kept me interested. I thought that towards the end it could have been shortened a bit, it ran on . But over all a very good read.
Read
August 15, 2014This Brett guy repeatedly rapes Kyla. ???!!!
Don't read. Horribly disgusting. I shredded my copy!
Don't read. Horribly disgusting. I shredded my copy!
July 18, 2016
So I have finished, it wasn't bad. Predictable but with a madman thrown into the mix. It's nice everything works out in the end, but in my opinion, it's sometimes frustrating getting there.
Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews