Beauty Like the Night

by  Liz Carlyle

The daughter of London's wickedest widow, Helene de Severs has struggled to overcome her heritage. Renowned within Europe's emerging psychiatric field, Helene has a gift for healing children. When fate sends her back to England, the country she left in disgrace, Helene is confident she has learned to govern her own reckless emotions.

Ruthlessly, Treyhern has dragged his notorious family from the brink of ruin. But a disastrous marriage has left him with a traumatized child, and his rebellious brother is just one step ahead of the bailiffs. When his dissolute father drops dead while debauching the governess, Treyhern's infamous temper is truly tested.

But the forceful earl means to straighten everyone out – as soon as he has hired a reputable governess. Yet the moment she steps from his carriage, Treyhern's cold reserve is melted by a rush of desire he had long thought dead. With her elegant clothing and mountain of luggage, the woman is not who he expected. Or is she? Sometimes the workings of the mind are as dangerous as those of the heart. And soon, danger is truly everywhere…

Book reviewed by Valarie Pelissero
Beauty Like the Night is a touching and poignant, but is not wholly centered around Cam and Helene. Ms. Carlyle's secondary characters are very well done, especially Cam's younger brother Bentley who seems to be enjoying following in his late father's footsteps, but who also has a dark side to him that was never fully explored. The reader also gets insight into how truly clever Ariane is, and how she overcomes the fear that turned her mute in order to save those that she loves when they are put in danger. I normally do not like stories with children in them because the child is always portrayed as being too precocious for their age, and it ends up detracting from the story, but that is not the case here, and Ariane's antics of hiding in cupboards and under beds to learn what she wanted to know added a certain charm to the story.


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