"historical romantic suspense"

Her stepfather uses her sister to blackmail Lady Maria Winter to abet his schemes. He has no concern re the impact his machinations have on her only that she obey or else never see her sibling again. However and in spite of her own scandals as an alleged widow-maker with two spouses suspiciously dead, Maria uses her keen intelligence to stay one step ahead of this rat until she figures out where he stashed her sister.

Her odious relative demands Maria use her body to seduce pirate Christopher St. John. However, she is attracted to the rogue who she must prove is a traitor or at least a dupe. Christopher has just gotten freed from prison with the stipulation that he seduce the "Wintry Widow" in order to learn her secrets and more so that of her stepfather. However, he is attracted to his target making him wonder if he has fallen into her sensual trap.

This historical romantic suspense grips the audience from the opening moment when readers meet the Wintry Widow and never slows down until the final confrontation. Maria and Christopher are terrific protagonists as they struggle between blackmailing demands and love. Sylvia Day writes a superb tale that will have her fans wondering throughout what the lead couple will choose.

Harriet Klausner

Reviewed by Harriet Klausner
Posted May 27, 2007

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Summary

For the notorious Lady Winter, seduction and duplicity are required to survive. Cunning and precision are the tools of pirate Christopher St. John. Pitted against one another, they are a surprise waiting to happen...

SET A CRIMINAL TO CATCH A CRIMINAL

Christopher St. John and Maria, Lady Winter are infamous in Society for their misdeeds and their charming allures. Wherever they go, scandalized whispers and covetous glances follow. A ruthless pirate and a widow whose two husbands have met untimely deaths, the wickedly renowned figures are even more intriguing to the authorities. Now they've been set on the most provocative of tasks—St. John is released from prison to learn the "Wintry Widow's" intimate secrets, while Lady Winter is charged with performing a similar deception in reverse. One will succeed. One will hang.

FROM BALLROOM TO BEDROOM, THEY'RE PERFECTLY MATCHED

With the fate of loved ones in the balance, the unlikely couple embarks upon a battle of wills and wits that takes them from glittering ballrooms to the depths of the underworld to the candlelit pleasures of the bedroom. As they fall helpless to a desire and startling affinity neither expected, the deadly web of their subterfuge closes in, forcing them to make a choice. Individual freedom? Or an audacious scheme to keep an impossible yet irresistible love...