"A funny romance"

In 1850, a storm wrecks the ship Serendipity. Young Victoria Dearbourne, her mom and her pragmatic companion Miss Cammy Scott survive the disaster having been shipwrecked on an Oceania deserted island. Not long afterward, Victoria's mom dies from her injuries.

Eight years later, Victoria's grandfather hired Captain Grant Sutherland to learn if any of his relatives survived and if so to bring them home. Nine searches have failed, but on the tenth Grant and crew locate Victoria and a somewhat befuddled Cammy. They bring the marooned pair back to England in triumph. However, after living free in the wild, Victoria struggles to return to the corset lifestyle of Victorian England although falling in love with her heroic rescuer makes it easier to readapt.

PRICE OF PLEASURE is an enjoyable Victorian romance due to the antics of the lead female protagonist who is the personification of "How 'Ya Gonna Keep 'Em Down On The Farm? (After They've Seen Paree)" though her big city was a island wilderness. The story line is fun to follow due to Victoria's struggle to adapt to polite society. Cammy is an intriguing sidekick and Grant and his main crewmember are solid protagonists. Still this is Victoria's tale, as she must make life choices.

Harriet Klausner

Reviewed by Harriet Klausner
Posted August 9, 2004

Summary

A man noted for his courage and integrity, Captain Grant Sutherland journeys to Oceania to find Victoria Dearbourne, an English girl lost at sea a decade before. He's given her ailing grandfather his word—as a gentleman—to find and protect her. But one look at a grown Victoria and Grant has never felt less like one.

Tori relishes freedom, untamed passion, and spontaneity above stifling order. Even more so when a proud, cold British captain arrives to rescue her, though she has no wish to be. As Grant tries to convince her to leave her island home, she begins to see in him a man hungering for more. A man who once laughed. A man who desires her but won't take what she offers.

Grant struggles to control his own savage passions—and fails, Tori must decide what she wants more—her unfettered independence or the only man who could tame her wild heart....