Friday Recommends #1

So it's Friday again, and that means here is exciting Friday Recommends!

Friday Recommends is a feature, hosted by Pen to Paper. I'm quite excited about this new feature as one of the things I love is being able to share the news about a great book.  We've all been there!  After reading a fab book you want to shout out to the world how great it is.

The rules for Friday Recommends are:

• Follow Pen to Paper as host of the meme.
• Please consider adding the blog hop button to your blog somewhere, so others can find it easily and join in too! Help spread the word! The code will be at the bottom of the post under the linky.
• Pick a book that you've read, and have enjoyed enough to recommend to other readers. It can be a book you've read recently, or a book you read years ago - it's up to you - but make sure you tell us why you love the book (like a mini review). You make the post as long or as short as you like.
• Add your blog to the linky at the bottom of this post after posting your blog post.
• Put a link back to pen to paper (http://vogue-pentopaper.blogspot.com) somewhere in your post.
• Visit the other blogs and enjoy!

My choice this week is:  The Duke of Shadows by Meridith Duran

Summary:

In a debut romance as passionate and sweeping as the British Empire, Meredith Duran paints a powerful picture of an aristocrat torn between two worlds, an heiress who dares to risk everything...and the love born in fire and darkness that nearly destroys them.

From exotic sandstone palaces...
Sick of tragedy, done with rebellion, Emmaline Martin vows to settle quietly into British Indian society. But when the pillars of privilege topple, her fiancé's betrayal leaves Emma no choice. She must turn for help to the one man whom she should not trust, but cannot resist: Julian Sinclair, the dangerous and dazzling heir to the Duke of Auburn.

To the marble halls of London...
In London, they toast Sinclair with champagne. In India, they call him a traitor. Cynical and impatient with both worlds, Julian has never imagined that the place he might belong is in the embrace of a woman with a reluctant laugh and haunted eyes. But in a time of terrible darkness, he and Emma will discover that love itself can be perilous -- and that a single decision can alter one's life forever.

Destiny follows wherever you run.
A lifetime of grief later, in a cold London spring, Emma and Julian must finally confront the truth: no matter how hard one tries to deny it, some pasts cannot be disowned...and some passions never die.

My Thoughts:

This was how I was introduced to historical romance.  And now historical romance is one of my favorite genres.  This is my first real historical romance novel and its about my country, India, and I finished this on our Independence day last year. :)

Now to why I recommend it.. I loved this book, not because of its strong story, the beautiful portrayal of the places and the unique lead characters, but because of the pain, it caused during the second half of the book.  This book is so good, kinda dark. I think my chest ached for the entire second half of the book.

Must read!  I recommend it to all of you! 

Just tell me what you thought about it, if you have read this book already!  Or what do you think about the plot, if you are intending to read it now!