Very enjoyable read. One thing I was disappointed with is that you don't experience the moment the hero realizes that he loves the heroine-it is off the page.It would have enhanced the story to know. 4/5 ( )

Alexander Sheffield has existed in an alcoholic haze for ten years, and his primary occupation has been chasing skirts. He hasn’t always been this way. Before the death of his oldest brother in a boating accident, Alex was a serious, adventurous, resourceful, and rather studious young man. Guilt and alcohol, however, have about destroyed him. He is estranged from his noble, wealthy, well-connected family, but certainly not forgotten by them. When word comes to Alex’s uncle that a young, orphaned cousin in Russia is in danger, it is exactly the sort of opportunity he has been searching for to get his wayward nephew reconnected with his true, better, self. Alex Sheffield, to the surprise of everyone—including himself—heads off alone to St. Petersburg to retrieve his cousin, Nicholas.

Octavia Hadley has no options. Her loving, scholarly, head-in-the-clouds father died and left her penniless. Her only relative took her in as a governess, but when Octavia refused the improper advances of her charge’s father, he retaliated by having her shipped to a post as governess to a young girl in Moscow. Octavia travels alone with little but strength of character, intelligence, and kindness.

****Spoiler alert**** Octavia and Alex meet on board ship during a terrifying storm. A couple of months later, during Napoleon’s invasion of Russia, they run into each other again, and join forces in a desperate attempt to get themselves and their charges to a port and onto a ship bound for England. It is here that Alex’s redemption story takes off.

As I read the story, I was rooting for Octavia and Alex, though I couldn’t blame her when she tried to avoid him like the plague. Ms. Pickens has written an engrossing story that did not let me go when the last page was turned. ( )