A Stranger’s Secret by Laurie Alice Eakes

Lady Morwenna Trelawny Penvenan indulged in her fair share of dalliances in her youth, but now that she's the widowed mother to the heir of the Penvenan title, she's desperate to polish her reputation. When she's accused of deliberately luring ships to crash on the rocks to steal the cargo, Morwenna begins an investigation to uncover the real culprits and stumbles across an unconscious man lying in the sea's foam—a man wearing a medallion with the Trelawny crest around his neck.

The medallion is a mystery to David Chastain, a boat builder from Somerset. All David knows is that his father was found dead in Cornwall with the medallion in his possession after lying and stealing his family's money. And he knows the widow who rescued him is impossibly beautiful—and likely the siren who caused the shipwreck in the first place—as well as the hand behind whoever is trying to murder David.

As Morwenna nurses David back to health and tries to learn how he landed on her beach, suspicion and pride keep their growing attraction at bay. But can they join together to save Morwenna's name and estate and David’s life? Can they acknowledge the love they are both trying to deny?

The story line was good and I did enjoy the book. A few things I found to be a little repetitive. We were always being told how poor Morwenna was and all she had to do was marry someone of her grandparents choosing and her dowry would be released. Of course they had a couple of men picked out for her.  Forget that she didn’t love either one of them. I realize in that day and age women didn’t have much say in who they married.  David was always being referred to as being of an inferior class to Morwenna. There was some mystery to the book but not as much as I had anticipated from reading the description by the publisher.

This was the second book in the Cliff’s of Cornwall series.  I did not read the first book in the series and I feel it might have made this book a little easier to understand. There were references to people that made me think their stories were told in the previous book.  I enjoyed reading about the history of the area.  I really wanted to give this book five stars but I couldn’t. I found the book to be slow in several places.  Therefore, I can only give this book three stars.

I was given this book by the publisher for an honest review.  I was not compensated in any way.