The Lady's Secret by Joanna Chambers

Perfection. I kinda feel like being naughty and leaving this review with just this single word. Frankly, there is little to add. I can tell you how amazing the story was, how much I enjoyed the characters and mostly the relationship buildup. How great the whole "time and place" was for me even though I don't read Historical that often. Yeah, I could also tell you how intrigued I was by the whole plot line and everything that happened and how I imagined it would play and the fact it didn't play as I thought it would.. I could tell you all that but it simply WON'T express just how much I enjoyed it and how much you HAVE to grab it and read it. I tell you now Joanna can write about apes and chickens populating the moon and I'd happily read it!

So, let's write a few words on the plot, shall we? 


Ever since their mother died a few years back, Georgy and her brother Harry are on a mission looking for a document, ANY document that shows their parents were married, meaning they are not the illegitimate kids of Lord Dunsmore and his actress "mistress", no, they are so legitimate Harry is actually the rightful heir! 

No matter how insistent Harry is he finds nothing. Yet Lilly, Georgy's best friend, has an interesting idea! She heard that Lord Nathan Harland will be attending Christmas festivities at the the Dunsmore manner (the best place to look for the information the Dunsmores are SURELY working hard to conceal), and not only that, he is looking for a valet! 

Since Harry has already tried talking to the Dunsmores it would be stupid for him to appear (even as a valet) on their manner so Georgy decides she would impersonate a young man and work for Nathan Harland.

I loved the beginning and the possibilities I saw in it. Since this story is told from both Nathan and Georgy's POV it was great seeing the story line from both their views, learning what they came to appreciate in one another first as employer and employee and later on when truths starts to unravel how they fall for one another. With everything around them it felt as though it was Georgy and Nathan falling in love. It wasn't about Nathan's title or his ability to maybe help her out (or stop her..), it wasn't about Georgy doing her absolute best to "raid" the Dunsmores. It was truly and firstly about them. They fell in love like "any" man and woman and the plot around them was a sort of a bonus. 

Even though the timing story of this story is the early 1800s Georgy felt so brave and maybe even a sort of a feminist. She was different, which is part of what Nathan found so appealing in her. She was "just" a woman yet she was smart and canning but also fragile, sensitive and sometimes shy and insecure. She was just perfect because she felt so genuine and real. She mad mistakes, she trusted and got hurt, she tried to keep herself at bay but fell for Nathan anyway and in a way he was the same. He tried to "arm" himself with fashionable clothes and a cold manner but inside he was always in a fierce need for someone JUST like her and she was peeling his layer one by one. 

I'll stop here because now that I started writing past the word Perfection I seem to be almost unable to stop! But I will! I'll just say that I'm Joanna's fan and I'll read ANYTHING she publish. I have two more books by her scheduled for the ending of the year, both Historicals, and yet I just found out yesterday she will be a part of a Contemporary MM Romance Anthology "Wish Come True" - YAY! 

God, I loved this book. a MUST read.

Additional Details: Kindle Ebook, 278 pages, 19-21 September 2015 / On GoodReads