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"Regncy fans will like this one"

He spent the last decade dedicated to his nation's efforts to defeat Napoleon. Now Trent Severn returns home to take charge of his personal responsibilities including a ward he has not seen since her father's funeral too many years ago.

Amy Conde runs a horse-breeding farm that needs a new stallion. She asks her absentee guardian for money to buy the horse that she needs not knowing that in three months she gains control of her estate. Before she can get the money, Trent arrives and is stunned to find an intelligent beautiful businesswoman who despises him instead of the grieving little girl of his memories. To make up for his neglect, he decides she needs a suitable spouse to care for her despite the fact that Amy has an inordinate amount of business acumen. He soon decides that man should be he and she wholeheartedly agrees.

THE GUARDIAN is a by the book Regency romance that fails to hook the audience even though they will admire Amy's abilities. Instead, the readers will feel turned off by the lead female character who spends too much time digging into the why behind the behavior of Trent and why she loves the person she used to hate. This causes Amy to lose the empathy of historical romance fans. Though diehard Regency aficionados will enjoy this tale, most other readers will be better off passing on this novel and trying other works by Barbara Miller such as DEAREST MAX.

Harriet Klausner

Reviewed by PNR Group Member
Posted July 18, 2001

Sparkling mixes of Regency drama and desire, Barbara Miller's books have been called "delectable" (Romantic Times). Share her matchless wit as a spirited young lady battles the man who controls her fortune....

For seven years Miss Amy Conde has run a successful horse breeding enterprise on her country estate, Talltrees. She longs to bring new blood into her line with a younger stallion, but that requires capital -- money her absent guardian is willfully withholding. Until Amy turns twenty-five in three months' time, Mr. Trent Severn controls her fate, and she bitterly resents his interference.

Trent's role in aiding his country's war against Napoleon has consumed the last decade of his life. When he thinks of his ward, he remembers a little girl he met once, at her father's funeral. Then he comes to Talltrees and finds that Amy is now a capable, strong-willed businesswoman -- and a vital, passionate soul who regards him with deep disgust. Stunned beyond measure, he determines to find her a husband who will take her off his hands. But when an eligible suitor does arrive, Trent and Amy discover the heated emotion that sparked between them from the first is rapidly turning to desire.

Genre: Historical Romance, Regency