Dangerous/Minerva Spencer/ 360 pgs

Lady Euphemia, daughter of a duke, has recently returned to London society after escaping from a harem in North Africa. She'd been captured by pirates and sold as a slave and lived there for 20 years, giving birth to one child, a son. Her son, now a teenager, stubbornly stayed behind when she escaped but she has plans to go back and get him. Her father, the duke, has other plans. He thinks she's an embarrassment to the family (the scandal!) and wants her married off to absolutely anyone as quick as possible. Enter the Marquess of Exley, a mysterious, private man who is rumored to have killed his first two wives. The first half of this book was pretty good. Mia and Adam are at least partly honest with each other and this was refreshing. They establish a fairly solid relationship by the midway point. And then things just kind of went south. Mia, who rarely thinks about her son except when the reader is supposed to feel that she's so devoted to him, decides to go rescue him with the help of some pirate friends of hers. Adam decides to follow. The whole second half just didn't work for me but I was still impressed with the writing.