Just One of Those Flings

Title	Just One of Those Flings
Author	Candice Hern
Series	Merry Widows #2
Release Date	August 1, 2006
Genre	Historical Romance
Rating	⭐⭐⭐⭐☆
Heat Level	🌶️🌶️🌶️
Goodreads	View on Goodreads

Just One of Those Flings by Candice Hern is really more than just one of those kinds of books. It’s a complex story about a woman torn between pursuing her desires and performing her duty to her family and her station in life. Beatrice meets a mysterious man at a masquerade ball. Their attraction is instantaneous, and they proceed to satisfy their desires out in the garden! But in her shock at having just finished doing the deed outdoors with a stranger, she flees–but cannot forget the passion and the feelings that this encounter has stirred up.

She is chaperoning her niece for the Season, and the Marquess of Thayne is the most eligible catch for the girl. However, Beatrice will soon discover that her mystery man is none other than the Marquess whom her niece has set her sights on for marriage. What a quandary.

Once the Marquess, aka Gabriel, finds out the identity of his garden goddess, he pursues her–to Beatrice’s dismay, since their affair must remain secret, but she can also not encourage her niece to pursue the man she is sleeping with. Her situation is fraught with obstacles and tension, but Gabriel is determined to win her heart. He is a very sensual man and spent a great deal of time learning the tantric arts while he was stationed in India for several years. He has rocked Beatrice’s world, and nothing will ever be the same.

I enjoyed the chemistry between Gabriel and Beatrice, but I was constantly bothered by her niece, who was entirely too headstrong,  self-centered, and shallow. I couldn’t stand the girl, and every page she appeared on, I just wanted to scratch out the niece and her scheming mother (who was recovering from an injury, hence why Beatrice was chaperoning instead).

I would have preferred if the story were a little less painful. I was unsure at first how Hern was ever going to resolve all the negative drama. At one point, I wanted to just throw my hands up and not finish the book because I was like, well, how is that going to get fixed? But I did enjoy the story, and I completely believed that Beatrice and Gabriel were made for each other. This is the second book of Hern’s “Merry Widow” series.