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She couldn't remember who she was...
A temptingly beautiful woman awakens in a stranger's bed, rescued
from the icy waters of the Thames, her memory gone. Told that
she is Vivien Rose Duvall, one of London's most scandalous beauties,
she finds herself under the protection of enigmatic, charming
Grant Morgan. Her life is in his hands. Deep in her heart, she
knows he has mistaken her for someone else...
He was the only man she could trust.
As one of London's most eligible and unattainable
catches, Grant Morgan is a man who has known every kind of woman.
And the one in his arms now seems so innocent, so vulnerable,
that he can't help but be enchanted. And as his love for this
mysterious beauty grows, he's determined to unravel the secrets
of her past and discover the truth -- no matter what.
From Publishers Weekly
Untypically, this Regency features lower-class
protagonists: a rough-around-the-edges Bow Street runner and
a notorious, unlikable courtesan. Grant Morgan, once a poor
orphan, has become rich in the service that was the precursor
to London's modern-day police force. (Runners worked both for
the Bow Street magistrates and as independent detectives.) When
he rebuffs the advances of flame-haired beauty Vivien Duvall,
she retaliates by spreading vicious, demeaning rumors. He then
finds her half drowned, almost strangled to death and suffering
from traumatic amnesiaAand he takes revenge by convincing her
they're lovers. This way, he can bed her easily while searching
for her assailant. But is she really who he thinks she is? The
questions of exactly who it is that he has slept with and who
hates Vivien Duvall enough to try to kill her are quite intriguing.
Kleypas (Then Came You) writes a spirited tale, clearly enjoying
her characters, but she may unsettle fans of the genre with
her willingness to stray from its conventions. Not only does
she present a d?class? world, but Regency misses don't normally
say "Ick!"
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Lisa's comments:
I had a complete blast writing this novel,
as it features a Bow Street Runner as a hero. Grant Morgan is
a Regency-era detective, and so he is very much a physical character
as well as an intelligent one. I put a lot of action in this
book, and I used a great deal of material from antique and rare
books detailing what the Bow Street Runners were like. Although
they are used often as secondary characters in novels, few people
really know what they were like and how they worked. And I don't
think anyone has made a Runner a hero before, which is puzzling,
considering how sexy detectives are. I even had a slightly negative
comment from Publishers Weekly which said that readers might
be disconcerted by the fact that neither Grant Morgan nor the
woman he falls in love with are aristocratic. Evidently the
reviewer didn't realize that readers are always willing to try
something new -- we don't necessarily want the same story over
and over again!
Order
from Amazon
Lisa Kleypas, Avon Books, 5/1999 Back
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