Her Secret Desire // A Secret Life — C.J. Archer

Courageous Minerva Peabody, a poor but passionate playwright, is cursed to be living in Elizabethan England, when women most assuredly did not write plays. Determined to succeed, Min impulsively enlists the help of the first man she sees to be her "cover." Blake, her chosen surrogate, a handsome blue-eyed sea captain with his own agenda, is a man with a mysterious past, a wondrous pair of shoulders, and an irresistible aura of intrigue. As his own mission--ferreting out the cad who got his sister pregnant--collides with Min's nascent career, his dilemma is keen: protect either his family's honor or the woman who's slowly but surely winning his heart. Fast-paced, funny, richly detailed, and with a deliciously dark edge, "Her Secret Desire" speaks to any woman who, no matter what, never gives up on her dreams.