ParaNormalRomance.org

"Engaging Georgian romance"

In 1772 though she owes a fortune due to her nasty deceased husband's debts to Jasper Hyde, Millicent Wentworth spends more than she can afford to buy an elderly Jamaican slave. Millicent immediately frees Ohenewaa while Jasper goes wild over learning he was outbid because he obsesses over owning the aging former slave.

Needing money badly, Millicent agrees to wed Lyon Pennington, a wealthy invalid wallowing in self-pity. His family pays off her debts and he is moved to her home where many free former slaves earn a wage. As Millicent pushes Lyon around and with the aid Ohenewaa a healer, he begins to recover much of what he lost in the accident that left his first wife dead. As the English couple falls in love, Jasper becomes desperate to get hold of Ohenewaa so he can force her to "free" him from her curse. He is willing to kill anyone in his way of achieving his goal.

This engaging Georgian romance works on several layers besides the obvious romance between the lead couple. The secondary players provide depth to the high morality of the prime protagonists so that the audience feels the mental anguish and physical pain of Lyon and the need bordering on guilt for Millicent to make retribution for her odious first husband's treatment of people. Though the Jasper subplot adds little to the prime tale except suspense and action, sub-genre readers will strike gold with this deep tale.

Harriet Klausner

Reviewed by PNR Group Member
Posted May 25, 2003

THE PROPOSAL... Driven to undo the evil wrought by her dead husband, Millicent Wentworth must find a way to save her estate and free the innocent people he enslaved. Her only hope is a marriage—in name only—to the notorious widower the Earl of Aytoun.

THE GROOM... Devastated by the tragic accident that killed his wife and left him gravely wounded, Lyon Pennington, fourth Earl of Aytoun, is tormented by the accusations that blame him for the catastrophe. Filled with despair, he lets his mother lure him into a marriage of convenience—for the sake of a good-hearted woman on the verge of financial ruin.

THE DESIRE... Under Millicent's gentle gaze, Lyon begins to regain his strength and his wounded heart begins to heal. And soon Millicent discovers that beneath his unruly and grim demeanor, Lyon just may be the most handsome—and caring—man she's ever encountered. For the first time in her life, she realizes that she is alive...alive with a smoldering desire for the one man she'll love forever....