"True love is best found when one is not looking"

The Scottish Lockhart's desperately need the money they will get from the sale of their families solid gold beastie. The only problem is, Liam didn't manage to get the beastie home when he went to London to steal it back from their English cousins. So now Griffin will head to London to find the woman who they think has the beastie, and bring it home.

The catch: He can't go as a Lockhart because the English cousins probably would probably throw him into Newgate for having stolen it in the first place. The plan: Assume a title that is no longer in use, infiltrate the English society and get the beastie back. The problem: One English wallflower who fancy's herself in love with an English Lockhart figures out the truth and finds the beastie first!

Julia London has written a fun Regency romance. Anna has had several seasons and is on the verge of getting put "on the shelf" which she belatedly decided she didn't want. She has always admired Drake Lockhart (the English cousin) and thought he admired her as well, until her younger sister Lucy becomes the bell of the season, and Anna hears that Drake will offer for Lucy.

While I enjoyed the story, it seemed a little long. Julia London strikes me as wordy in her writing, and therefore I wasn't sucked into the story as much as I thought I should. Up until Anna blackmails Griffin things seemed to drag for me. Anna was almost annoying - she kind of struck me as a busy body. Grif was doing the best he could to find the beastie, but he was going about it all wrong. So there is humor.

For me the story really picked up after Anna blackmails Grif and tells him that she wants to learn how to seduce a man. Here, I also I found myself starting to like Anna as a heroine. I think its mostly because the two were starting to care for each other, but Grif ironed out the side that didn't accentuate her feminine side. Which was pretty funny actually!

This was a fun read, and I'm really looking forward to finding out what happens to Mared (Griffen and Liams sister) who was used as collateral for the beastie and is evidentially cursed!

Reviewed by Cynthia Eckert
Courtesy eBOOKISLE
Posted February 11, 2006

Summary

Griffin Lockhart holds the key to his family's fate. Since his brother Liam failed to reclaim the priceless heirloom that could save their ancestral Scottish estate, it's now up to Grif to find it -- among the lords and ladies of fashionable London society. Disguised as a Scottish earl, Grif attends the most glittering balls, hunting for the woman who is rumored to possess his family's treasure. Along the way he catches the eye of Anna Addison, a highborn young woman whose sharp tongue and even sharper wits have limited her marital prospects but enable her to detect Grif's deception. Determined to find a husband this Season, Anna draws Grif into a scandalous bargain: She will deliver his precious heirloom -- and keep secret his true identity -- if Grif can teach her how to seduce a man and win his heart. Well aware of what a man wants from a woman, Grif reluctantly instructs her. Soon Anna is besieged by suitors and Grif's exasperation with the troublesome beauty turns into heated desire. With time running out, Grif commits a reckless act in order to claim not only his treasure, but the passionate woman he believes is his and his alone.