THE RIVALS The handsome, dashing, wealthy Richard Adair, the seventh Earl of Brampton, was caught in a most devilishly difficult tug-of-war. Claiming his hand was shy and demure Margaret Wells, who became his bride in an icily arranged marriage designed to produce an heir in a boringly proper alliance. Claiming his heart was a nameless charmer who concealed her face behind a mask and displayed her body in a daring gown as she made the Earl give himself over to a scandalously improper passion. Both of them desperately wanted Richard Adair - and both dreaded to think what would happen should he discover that they were one and the same two-faced lady ...
Author
Mary Jenkins was born in 1944 in Swansea, Wales, UK. After graduating from university, moved to Saskatchewan, Canada, to teach high school English, on a two-year teaching contract in 1967. She married her Canadian husband, Robert Balogh, and had three children, Jacqueline, Christopher and Sian. When she's not writing, she enjoys reading, music and knitting. She also enjoys watching tennis and curling. Mary Balogh started writing in the evenings as a hobby. Her first book, a Regency love story, was published in 1985 as A Masked Deception under her married name. In 1988, she retired from teaching after 20 years to pursue her dream to write full-time. She has written more than seventy novels and almost thirty novellas since then, including the New York Times bestselling 'Slightly' sextet and 'Simply' quartet. She has won numerous awards, including Bestselling Historical of the Year from the Borders Group, and her novel Simply Magic was a finalist in the Quill Awards. She has won seven Waldenbooks Awards and two B. Dalton Awards for her bestselling novels, as well as a Romantic Times Lifetime Achievement Award.
