"Filled with suspense and romance"

In 1813, Lady Jane Pennington has met every eligible bachelor in London in the three months that she has stayed with her uncle, aunt and five Maywell Mob cousins. Jane notices a light in a room that her uncle closed off. To get a closer look she climbs a tree, but gets stuck on a branch just as gambler Ethan Damont leaves. He rescues her. She later learns that her hero is a filler "place card", but not suited for any of her cousins

Ethan is tired of the Liar's Club following him around so he confronts Lord Dalton Etheridge who warns him either he spies for the crown or else. The Liar's want him to play cards with Maywell a traitor. Ethan realizes that Maywell endangers Jane and her cousins with his traitorous activity so he reluctantly agrees. Maywell knows Ethan desires his niece so he asks him to escort Jane to a party because he plans to recruit the lad to spy on the Liar's Club even as he knows Etheride is also using Ethan to spy on him. As Ethan and Jane fall in love, he chooses his own path to keep her safe, not knowing that she has a more intricate role in her uncle's activities.

The latest Liar's Club novels (see THE SPY and THE PRETENDER) is filled with suspense and romance headed by a likable lead couple in which Jane is the courageous patriot while Ethan has doubts. The story line is action- packed as the audience anticipates a showdown between the traitor and the doubter thorough that climax seems weak. He also makes her come in a carriage without touching her by using seductive words; she is too strong for that to occur. Still this is a strong Regency romantic suspense thriller that Celeste Bradley's readers will enjoy.

Harriet Klausner

Reviewed by Harriet Klausner
Posted May 16, 2005

Summary

Ethan Damont's legendary gambling skills have earned him a place at the gaming tables of London's most exclusive homes. He has used his dubious place in Society to aid The Liar's Club. But his latest favor to the group has not only put his life in danger-it has thrown him together with the woman who tempts him to forgo his rakish ways. Lady Jane Pennington is the ravishing niece of a suspected traitor. Now it's Ethan's job to discover if the woman he finds irresistible is naïve to her uncle's deceit-or guilty of treason against the Crown...

Jane can barely wait for the Season to end-until she meets Ethan Damont. After a humiliating first encounter, Jane expects a scoundrel like Ethan to joke at her expense. Instead, he behaves like a perfect gentleman. But just as Jane finds herself overcome by her desire for Ethan, he takes her captive. Suddenly, she is pulled into a dangerous world where it's impossible to know who is friend-and who is foe. Will Ethan prove to be her undoing...or the love she has always longed for?