"Typical but pleasant Regency romance"

In 1816 Alicia Carrington pretends to be a widow escorting her younger sister Adriana Pevency during her first season. Alicia and Adriana know that the younger sibling needs a good match so that their three younger brothers can go to school. Anything less that a marriage to a kind wealthy man means disaster for the five Pevency orphans.

Lord Ruskin has offered marriage to Alicia who rejects him. However, he knows she is a fake having flaunted the Ton with her widow fabrication. He uses blackmail to force her into his bed, but someone kills him before he succeeds. Lord Anthony Blake of the Bastion Club, men dedicated to finding their own wives without the aristocracy interfering, notices Alicia with the dead Rusken. He helps her flee the scene, but wonders if she is involved as he was investigating the deceased in an effort to uncover those traitors who abetted Napoleon during the war. As he stays close to Alicia, he wonders if his heart is hiding the truth about her because she hides something from him.

The second Bastion Club tale is a typical Regency romance though the chase for the traitors occurs after the war is over. The story line entertains the audience, as Anthony knows his beloved has a deep secret she fears will be revealed, but he has a problem seeing her betraying her country. Though adhering to the conventional sub-genre tale and her own Cynster novels, Stephanie Lauren's latest novel will provide pleasure to her myriad of readers.

Harriet Klausner

Reviewed by Harriet Klausner
Posted August 30, 2003

Summary

The Season has yet to begin, and the second member of the Bastion Club, tall, handsome Anthony Blake, Viscount Torrington, is already a target for every matchmaking mama in London. None of their flighty daughters can fix his interest, but a certain lady does... Alicia is living a deception. Desperation has caused the determined but penniless lady to boldly launch her ravishing younger sister into the ton and have her make a spectacular match. By masquerading as the widowed "Mrs. Carrington" Alicia can act as the perfect chaperone...but fashionable ladies are not accused of murder... When Tony Blake discovers Alicia standing over a dead body in his godmother's garden, every instinct tells him she is innocent. His connections allow him to take control of the investigation, his social prominence provides her public support, but it is more than honor that compels him to protect her and to do everything in his seductive power to make her his.