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"Excellent story of love and betrayal."
Reviewed by Tammie Ard
Posted August 16, 2004

Anne Smythe has worked hard to make her Healing Spa and Bathing Emporium a success. She stands by the rule of catering only to women, which is acceptable to society. After arguing her rule with Lady Eleanor that a man on the property could ruin her reputation and no amount Read more...

"Entertaining Regency romance"
Reviewed by Harriet Klausner
Posted August 28, 2004

In 1813 Anne Paxton Smyth, illegitimate daughter of an earl, pretends to be a widow so that she run Mrs. Anne Smythe's Healing Spa and Bathing Emporium for women. Lady Eleanor Chamberlin arrives desperately pleading with Anne to nurture her war wounded brother Stephen back to health. Anne Read more...

Summary

Mrs. Anne Smythe's Healing Spa and Bathing Emporium is a haven for fashionable women who believe the waters have aphrodisiac properties. Yet the prim proprietress never thinks of testing that theory-until grievously injured Captain Stephen Chamberlin is deposited on her doorstep. Every minute the war hero spends under her roof courts scandal. It isn't long before she discovers that having such a man at her mercy arouses her in ways she never thought possible as their "therapeutic" sessions in the hot springs have become steamy trysts Anne wishes would never end... Stephen thought he had reached his lowest point when the war rendered him an invalid. He's proven wrong when his sister and best friend leave him in the care of the tantalizing Mrs. Anne Smythe. Yet as the healing waters work their magic, so does the widow Smythe. Beneath her unflappable exterior lies an alluring woman: warm, witty, and refreshingly open to sensual experimentation. But when mutual pleasure turns to forbidden love, can two people outwit the forces that would see them torn apart?