A Bad Woman Who Wanted to be a Good Wife.
Marie Courcel arrives in Paris with nothing but a farm girl’s stubbornness and a desperate need to reinvent herself. She finds work, learns fast, and discovers how charm, discipline, and intelligence can open doors that once seemed locked forever. By the time an American businessman crosses her path, Marie has become a woman who knows exactly what she wants—and what she’ll never return to.
Across the ocean, in the polished suburbs of Old Haven, she faces a different kind of scrutiny: the gossip, the curiosity, the quiet hostility toward a woman who refuses to play the role assigned to her. Marie builds the life she dreamed of anyway…until one violent night and a looming threat from the past force her to protect everything she’s fought for.
A classic by Joseph Hilton Smyth, back in print for the first time in over 70 years.
Joseph Hilton Smyth /
Literary Fiction
