"Emotional romance with brilliant characters."

John Grayson continues to have nightmares of his pregnant wife being blown to smithereens on the battlefield. Now living in a state of perpetual drunkenness, he answers the door of his shabby London apartment to find a young woman in the throes of childbirth. She asks if this is the home of John Grayson, before she stumbles inside. Over the course of the next few minutes, he delivers the woman's child, a small, but healthy, boy. When he asks who she is, she informs him she's the wife of Capt. John Grayson. One small problem though, Grayson has never laid eyes on the woman before.

Maggie Delaney, courted, married and thoroughly bedded by a man she believed to be John Grayson, finds herself deserted, completely alone and pregnant. Fearing for her child's life, she goes to London to find employment and reads about Capt. John Grayson in the newspaper. However, when she turns up on his doorstep, he's not the man she married. Faced with the difficult choice of how she'll raise her baby, she allows a web of misunderstandings to weave about her circumstances and accepts the help of Grayson's relatives, while he sets off for Europe.

Maggie winds up at Grayson's childhood home and lives there until his return, two years later. During that time, she's become the much-needed, much-loved daughter to the Earl of Summerton. When Grayson finds her running the estate, he becomes suspicious of her motives and wonders if this was what she wanted all along.

But no matter what he thinks, Grayson finds he's drawn to this woman posing as his wife and so loved by his family.

Ms. Perkins writes an emotionally charged story with twists and turns and brilliant characters, alive with faults and passion. This is good old-fashioned storytelling at its best. I highly recommend this book.

Reviewed by Shayne Sawyer
Posted October 18, 2004