"An Exotic Love Story Set in India"

WHITE TIGER'S FANCY is set in Victorian India. Pauline Carrington, oldest unmarried daughter of a wealthy New York family has been sent to India, to her elder sister Lily Drake, in the hopes that she will find a husband. But tomboy Pauline isn't interested in marriage, she wants to have a real adventure. She quickly bests most of the young English officers in sports, and it looks as though Lily may fail to provide a worthy husband for the Carrington family. During a ball, Pauline is attracted to the men's smoking room, where Nate Savidge, known as the White Tiger, is entertaining the officers with his tales of killing man- eating tigers.

Nate is rugged, strong and handsome with a scar on his face that fascinates Pauline. But it is his adventurous tales that draw her closer. She climbs up a trellis to the second story window, and Nate discovers her when he goes out on the balcony. But she has overheard that Nate is leaving to hunt a man-eater that is terrorizing several Indian villages. She sees her chance for adventure, disguises herself as an Indian porter and joins his party.

In WHITE TIGER'S FANCY, Tracy Cozzens has drawn an evocative picture of India. The exotic nature of the setting can almost be tasted and smelled. Nate is a powerful, virile hero, and like any good romance hero he has a past to overcome and the strength to do it. Pauline is almost too rambunctious and tomboyish to have really existed. It seems to me that she gets by with a bit too much running around with her skirts hiked up to have been accepted in the stodgy English society of colonial India. But the adventure that Nate and Pauline find is exciting and well worth the read.

Reviewed by Cynthia Meidinger
Posted November 11, 2002

Summary

The eldest of her mother's three remaining unmarried daughters, Pauline Carrington is dismayed to find herself the object of endless matchmaking schemes. A natural athlete with a zest for anything new or exciting, marriage is the last thing she wants -- she craves adventure, and she's sure to find it while visiting her sister Lily in exotic India. Sure enough, she discovers handsome and daring Nathaniel Savidge is planning a dangerous tiger hunt -- but refuses to consider taking her with him...

Nate is too serious about the coming hunt to let a pretty, pampered heiress distract him. But when Pauline disguises herself as a Punjabi to join the retinue, he decides to teach her a lesson she won't soon forget -- and give her a taste of just what life in the wild is all about. Pretending that he hasn't seen through her disguise will be troublesome, though, especially when he realizes that the savvy young adventuress has captured his heart and soul...