Dangerous Deceits

by Barbara Hazard

The union between a notorious rake and a young, beautiful lady would be a marriage-in-physical-deed only--until the two discover how hard it is to play with passion and win. From the author of The Guarded Heart. "A master storyteller".--Romantic Times.

Genres: Romance, Regency, Historical Romance

224 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1982

About the author

Barbara (Booth) Hazard, a resident of Exeter, NH, died on October 25, 2019 in Boston, MA surrounded by family. Born in 1931 in Fall River, MA, the daughter of Albert L. and Lillian (Holland) Booth, she was raised and educated in New England. She graduated from Rhode Island School of Design in 1953 and was briefly employed by Ginn & Company in Boston as a Technical Editor. She married Donald T. Hazard in 1954 and next worked as a Graphic Designer/Artist for a Concord, NH advertising firm.

Originally trained as a musician, Mrs. Hazard also studied oil painting with Amy Jones and for a time had several shows in New York and Vermont. She began to write historical fiction in 1978. First published in 1981, she went on to write and publish 48 books, several of which are also in circulation abroad. She won several awards for her writing.

Mrs. Hazard wrote that there were several things in her life that she was most proud of; being Concertmaster of the MA All State Orchestra in Symphony Hall in Boston, having a successful career as an artist and as a writer, which was her greatest love besides her husband, three sons and their wives.

She loved New England and in particular, Cape Cod, which she visited every year for most of her life. Her other loves included her family, reading and music. She also wrote under the pen name of Lillian Lincoln.

Reviews

[Jen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh. Most romance plots would be over in like 50 pages if the MCs had an honest five minute conversation, though in this instance, the MC H was 100% honest with his intentions, but with his rakish reputation, the MC h had a difficult time believing him. She was also like 17, so a tad young to really understand what was going on.

Then, of course, they have a disagreement, wires get crossed, they don't talk and he gets engaged to the romantic rival, which poses a problem when they get their wires uncrossed.

The engagement to the rival was ended by her when he "pressed his advances" on her and she freaked out and broke it off with him. She was the same as his mother, so I assume there was some physical/sexual trauma in both of them that they really needed to sort out. Not great to use her trauma to get her as the romantic rival to leave so the playing field would be open to the MC h.

If that was removed, then the book would have sat better with me I think. As it was, it didn't do much for me. Not badly written, just...I didn't appreciate the sexual trauma being used as a plot device.

2, one more book out of my house, stars.

[Janet · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although I prefer stories where the male and female leads detest each other at first or there's a good adventure, this story wasn't too bad. Diana Travis is a very young (17 going on 18) lady that has a disturbing although rather romantic run in with the Duke of Clare, reputed to be a rake. He immediately protests his love for her and his determination to make her his Duchess but she believes he's just playing with her affections and is really in love with the beautiful yet cold and conniving Lady Ponsonby. There are misunderstandings but not to the extent where you want to knock their two heads together so I enjoyed it. Good fluff that I needed to read after reading "Great Expectations".

[Tara · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is another comedy of errors with some very devious characters thrown in. It made me laugh.

[MrsMascara · Rating 4 out of 5]

P/B trad regency