An enjoyable romance. I figured out the truth about Deborah's late husband long before she did.

She does not realize what he is saying when he says:

Can you not see what is obvious to half the ton? You could never please me, no matter how many tricks you learned. My tastes are quite beyond your ken, ( )

The only real complaint I have about this is the distracting similarities between Elliot and the hero from Rake With a Frozen Heart. Both have different pasts, radically, yet they deal with them in almost exactly the same fashion--Elliot opens up a hospital for war veterans, the hero of RWFH opens up a hospital for mothers and their babies. It really dulled the enjoyment, I feel as though I would have appreciated this one more had I not read RWFH first.

Of course Deborah is a lot different than Henrietta in regards to a heroine, and that was certainly refreshing. I personally prefer Deborah, there's something decidedly stronger about her, perhaps as result of her difficult marriage, but nonetheless I appreciate the show of strength.

I liked the break in scenes, I liked the parallels of both of them having an "alternate self" in the forms of a thief and a 19th century dominatrix. His motivations for being a thief were obviously pure and that matches the overall character of Elliot. Characterization despite the "alternates" was very consistent.

It was interesting to explore the idea of a female erotica author in such an era; I would have liked to see a bit more of the, ahem, effect her books had on the society. We get a little taste of it, but not a lot, her writing career really took a back seat.

If anything else, it gets points for uniqueness, and as always, for being well written.

Being sick, I can only hope this formulates some sort of coherent statement about how you should read this book because it's good, if nothing else about the characterization which can be lacking in some historicals.

Thanks, Marguerite Kaye for the chance to read and review! ( )