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National bestselling author Liz Carlyle concludes her scandalous new trilogy with a sensuous novel of two star-crossed souls who share a secret or two . . . or three. Once upon a time, they eloped. But then dashing Scotsman Merrick MacLachlan accepted payment from Lady Madeleine's father to have the marriage annulled. Or did he? Two times, Maddie has wed. Once for love, once for comfort. Yet once more she is alone with only her beloved son and his haunting visions for company. Until fate thrusts her back into the arms of her first love. Three little secrets dance between them. One is that he desires her as much as ever; another is that she's never forgotten his touch. But the scars of their youthful passion run deep, and the third secret will either mark their undoing . . . or spark the sizzling reunion they dare not dream of.… (más)
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Three Little Secrets wraps up a trilogy of stories about three men who receive an ominous prediction from a seer that leads to each of them finally finding true love. In this one, our hero, Merrick, is the younger brother of Alasdair (One Little Sin). As the second son of a minor Scottish baronet, he was a virtual nobody who loved to build things and chose to work for a living as an architect. As a very young man, he fell for Madeleine, the daughter of an English Earl with strong political ambitions. After a short whirlwind affair, they decided to elope to Gretna Green and actually succeeded in marrying there, but her father caught up to them and beat Merrick nearly to death, stealing Madeleine back home with lies and deceit. When she found herself pregnant and believed that Merrick had abandoned her, she reluctantly married a much older relative of her mother’s and lived a reasonably comfortable life, traveling the world, for the next thirteen years. But after her husband's death, she returned to England to make a home for her son and is looking forward to finally being able to make her own decisions. However, her son is a very troubled young lad, and she has no idea how to help him. Then she chances to meet Merrick again when she discovers that he is the architect who built the house she is eager to purchase. But a huge misunderstanding, based on lies of the past that both of them believe, stands in the way of them getting back together and finally having the relationship they always wanted. This story perhaps wasn’t quite as strong as some of Liz Carlyle’s other works, but I did generally enjoy it with only a few misgivings.

At the age of twenty-two, Merrick fell hard and fast for seventeen-year-old Madeleine. Despite only spending a short time together, he knew she was the one for him, and that’s why he took a chance on a run to Gretna Green. Once married, he was in a haze of bliss until Maddie’s father showed up with several men who beat him to pulp. He fought tooth and nail, but when Maddie’s maid told him that Maddie had changed her mind, he started to doubt their love. Knocked unconscious, he spent weeks recovering, and once he was finally better, he went searching for his wife only to find that she’d married someone else and headed for the Continent. Ever since, Merrick has lived in a state of bitter discontentment, not quite able to forget Maddie and not entirely able to move on. He has, however, built a very lucrative business in various forms of construction. One day, while visiting one of the new houses he built that his agent had sold to a widow, he discovers Maddie there and his whole world turns on its ear. He’d thought never to see her again, and he’s still very angry with her, blaming her for the failure of their marriage and believing that she turned fickle and left him. But something deep inside him still calls out for her. Merrick can be a hard and difficult man who earned his nickname, the Black MacLachlan, for his rather ruthless business dealings. Maddie is still legally his wife and a part of him still wants her, but he can’t trust her. However, when he gets to know her son and finds out about his issues, Merrick calls a truce in an effort to help the boy. Overall, Merrick was a pretty good hero. I felt that he had good reason to distrust Maddie, but he can be a bit too stubborn about it, having difficulty giving Maddie a chance to explain and still holding a grudge even after certain things are out in the open.

As a young girl barely out of the schoolroom, Madeleine was utterly charmed by the roguish Merrick, which is why she didn’t hesitate to agree to an elopement. She was looking forward to a life with her new husband when her father ended it all by telling her that Merrick only married her for money and that he’d signed an annulment in exchange for a bribe just days after their wedding. Heartbroken, she returned home with her father, never suspecting foul play on his part, and hoped against hope that Merrick would come for her. But when week after week passed with no word from him, she began to despair, and then she found herself pregnant. With few other options, she agreed to marry an older cousin of her mother’s. He treated her well and she was reasonably content, but a part of her never forgot her first love, which is why, when she sees him again, her heart still longs for him. But because she believes he betrayed her, she can’t quite trust him. Madeleine is a loving and devoted mother to her son, Geoffrey, and would do just about anything to help him overcome the issues that are weighing him down, so she agrees to allow Merrick to take them to Scotland to visit his grandmother who he believes can help. Just like with Merrick, I felt that Madeleine had good reasons for her mistrust of him, although she, too, can be a bit stubborn at times. She was very young and naive when she married him, so in her uncertainties, she was easily duped by her father. However, since he wasn’t exactly a stellar parent, I maybe wasn’t 100% convinced that she could so easily believe his lies, and felt that she might have had at least a few doubts or misgivings.

Three Little Secrets had a number of notable supporting characters, including some that were drawn in from other stories in Liz Carlyle’s vast interconnected character web. Probably most prominent is Geoffrey, who could be said to have a bit of the fey in him. I felt very deeply for him, because he’s so guilt-ridden over knowing things and feeling that he’s somehow responsible for bad things happening. Much later on, after he’s grown, he is paired with Anais de Rohan in the book, The Bride Wore Scarlet. We get to see the wedding of Alasdair and Esmee (One Little Sin) and visit with them a bit more when Merrick and Maddie go to Scotland. Quin (Two Little Lies) pops up a couple of times offering Merrick support when his wife resurfaces after all these years. It was wonderful to see Cam and Helene (Beauty Like the Night) again after such a long time, along with their daughter, Ariane, who is nearly full-grown now. Maddie seeks out Helene’s help with Geoff, while Cam engages in business dealings with Merrick. They’ve always been one of my favorite of this author’s couples, and speaking of favorites, Cam’s brother, Bentley (The Devil You Know), shows up in a pivotal scene as well. I believe it was the first time he’s been seen since his own book, which greatly excited me.

Three Little Secrets got off to an excellent start, and I really thought it was going to earn keeper status from me. The opening prologue which shows what happened to Merrick when Maddie’s father showed up was heart-wrenching, and from there, I was very invested in the two of them finally reuniting after so long apart. Things were going along at a pretty good clip, but then the story seemed to slow down when it reached the middle portion and never quite fully recovered. I think this was due to the conflict between Merrick and Maddie dragging out a bit too long. Just when I thought they’d turned a corner, things kind of fell apart for them again, and it took until the end before everything was finally resolved. The ending is sweet and emotional, and left me feeling pretty good about their HEA. However, I couldn’t help feeling that perhaps additional external conflict, perhaps a villain or something that Merrick and Maddie could team up to fight against, might have helped with these issues. Instead, they more or less spend the majority of the story at odds and not quite trusting each other, which kind of put a damper on their rekindling love for me. But overall, it wasn’t too bad, and for the most part, I enjoyed the story. I look forward to reading more from the MacLachlan Family & Friends series, which appears that from here will jump a bit into the future to follow the next generation. ( )
  mom2lnb | Feb 18, 2020 |
I'd heard bad things about Three Little Secrets and I thought...no, certainly not, Liz Carlyle is too good to write a really bad book. I was wrong. Three Little Secrets is awful.

The worst thing about the book, what struck me as being unforgivably sloppy, is how ham-handed the plot is.

Madeleine's son Geoff has "fits" and "strange notions" - but neither she nor anybody around her nas noticed that he manages to tell the future through his fits, averting peril to life and limb numerous times. It is staggeringly obvious whatis happening, but nobody has put two and two together. Since Geoff saves Merrick's life twice during the book with his visions, I was pretty stunned that it took him 300 pages to figure out what was going on.

Or, alternatively, Madeleine believes that her marriage to Merrick was annuled. Now, apparently at the time of her marraige she didn't know what an annulment was; fine, I'll buy that. What I had a hard time believing is that at the age of 30 she still doesn't know what an annulment is - or what the conditions of getting one are.

She's perfectly stunned when Merrick tells her they're still married, and that a couple who have married and consummated their marriage would have an almost impossible time getting an annulment. So she tells Merrick that he's lying, leaves, vows to find out the truth herself...yet days and maybe even weeks go by and she hasn't found any way to figure out what annulment is or how to get one. This means that during subsequent meetings she can continue to insist that Merrick is lying, and their marriage was annuled.

There are plenty more examples. The plotting is just sloppy, and unbelievable enough to make it hard to get into the novel.

I was also really unsatisfied with the romance. Madeleine comes across as a meek coward, very timid and unhappy after a life of being bullied by one person after another. She occasionally has flashes of backbone - when she mostly seems brittle and cold.

And Merrick very quickly steps into the role of a bully - yelling at her, controlling her, taunting her. Madeleine does her fair share of taunting in return, but she is so fragile and weak, while Merrick is so confident and strong, that all of these exchanges were depressingly lopsided.

Merrick and Madeleine do nothing but fight. They have those really painful, no-holds-barred fights that leave deep internal wounds. They seemed to me like a couple on the verge of a divorce, not a reconciliation - and I didn't want them to get together. If it meant anything like a continuation of what was happening in the novel, it would be a truly miserable marraige.

I liked Merrick well enough; he's a hard, ruthless, brilliant man who only thinks about making money and is very good at it. He comes across as self-controlled, emotionally deadened, but the demons of his past and their lingering effect on his present are believable.

But I did not like Merrick with Madeleine. I couldn't see how Merrick's disciplined and dominating personality could do anything but oppress Madeleine's much weaker one. I didn't understand what Merrick saw in Madeleine, other than her looks - he occasionally says that he loves her for being a strong and capable woman, but he's delusional if that's his reasoning.

All in all, the worst Liz Carlyle yet. ( )
  MlleEhreen | Apr 3, 2013 |
Good book, characters strong, plot interesting. ( )
  fredalss | Jun 1, 2008 |
When last they met Merrick and Madeleine were in Gretna Green after being wed. Now they're thirteen years older and have had a lot of experience of life since. There were a lot of lies told to both of them to break them up but will they survive a rematch?

It's a harmless read but there were times when I felt it was losing pace and I was losing interest. Not a bad read but I enjoyed the first in the series the best. ( )
  wyvernfriend | Mar 6, 2008 |
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National bestselling author Liz Carlyle concludes her scandalous new trilogy with a sensuous novel of two star-crossed souls who share a secret or two . . . or three. Once upon a time, they eloped. But then dashing Scotsman Merrick MacLachlan accepted payment from Lady Madeleine's father to have the marriage annulled. Or did he? Two times, Maddie has wed. Once for love, once for comfort. Yet once more she is alone with only her beloved son and his haunting visions for company. Until fate thrusts her back into the arms of her first love. Three little secrets dance between them. One is that he desires her as much as ever; another is that she's never forgotten his touch. But the scars of their youthful passion run deep, and the third secret will either mark their undoing . . . or spark the sizzling reunion they dare not dream of.

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