"Wonderful sequel to Catspaw"

Catspaw II (Harlequin Intrigue #103, 1988) is the sequel to Catspaw (Harlequin Intrigue #9, 1985). There was over three years between the releases, but when read together, you will see they flow flawlessly as one story. The sequelis as good as the originak: a rarity, indeed. With Anne Stuart's brilliance dazzling romance readers for over twenty years, the two novels demonstrate her amazing talent from the very start. They are Stuart at her very best. It's a shame Harlequin does not release both of these tales together under one cover. They had a tiny touch of dating in a few places, but to us who were readers back then, it's more like a hint of memory lane! But frankly, you will be so wrapped up in Ferris Byrd and John Patrick Blackheart you won't notice or care about anything else. These two characters are simply amazing. Ferris Byrd is a self-made woman, but she tends to find herself more casual these days because her reformed cat burglar fiance likes her that way. Only, Blackheart is making Ferris wonder about their engagement. Oh, she loves him, but she is having doubt problems - same problems she faced in the first novel - she fears the lure of excitement is just too much for Blackheart to resist. So when he starts vanishing, without saying goodbye, and is gone for weeks at a time, she suddenly fears the worst, especially since there are big burglaries in the news all over Europe that sound like Blackheart is on the prowl again.

When the book takes up, it's exactly six months after Catspaw left off. They are engaged. Ferris is still living in her old apartment, though with new locks Blackheart installed. She is packing to move to his apartment, but on the rainy day, she is beginning to question if she has made a good choice. Her car has died and had to be towed to the garage, and worse, her house keys are in her purse. Going back to the garage is useless; they have already closed. So Ferris is left with breaking into her own apartment. After she goes with her cat burglar routine, coming from training from her husband-to-be, she is horrified and angry to find Blackheart has been sitting in his car watching her. She was not amused he enjoyed her bit of B&E. Neither were the police, when they nearly site her for tossing garbage around the area, since she used the trash cans to stand on to get to her balcony. She has to go out into the rain and pick up the mess. To say the least, that only lets her temper with Blackheart grow.

When she comes back, and finds he offers no excuses for his absence and says only he had been to England on business, she is far from pleased. When he is making coffee, she goes through his kit, finds burglar's tools - which he said he did not have need of anymore - and a passport, showing he had been to every country where there had been a big jewel robbery. She is not a happy camper. When he refuses to explain why he lied to her, she tells him the engagement is off.

Blackheart is furious Ferris refuses to trust him, but he is not going to involve her in the nasty things happening to him. Someone is trying to frame him for all those burglaries. Worse, now he is back in San Francisco, he discovers he is being set up to take the fall for two different robberies. Blackheart has to save his long-lost little sister from the clutches of jail, foil the robbers intent of making him their fall guy, and convince Ferris what she really doesn't trust is not him, but herself.

Ferris' ex-fiance and his mother, characters in the first tale, are back. There is also a secondary romance between Blackheart sister, Dany, and the policemen doggedly determined to see Blackheart in jail.

All in all, it's Stuart Magic! Craft, imagination, insight, sexy characters that steal your heart, all stirred into one potent brew. It just does not get any better than Ferris and Blackheart. Catspaw and Catspaw II need to be reprinted so Stuart fans can discover these sterling Stuart gems!

Reviewed by DeborahAnne MacGillivray
Posted August 27, 2004