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To recover some stolen heirloom rings, Jeremy Mallory decides to trap another thief to steal back the rings. When the crook he captures turns out to be a beautiful young girl masquerading as a boy, he’s not only shocked and amused, but also titillated. Ousted by her gang for helping him and having long desired to better her lot in life, a resourceful Danny demands compensation from Jeremy in the form of a job of maid in his recently established household. Danny, with her temptress looks, manly way of thinking and coarseness, is an intriguing challenge to this practiced seducer.
At first outraged and later highly tempted by the handsome rakehell’s blatant efforts to seduce her, Danny forces herself to resist him as she intensely longs for respectability, marriage and children and knows well that this Mallory isn’t the marrying kind. Soon Danny undergoes a Cinderella-like transformation and successfully poses as the new love of Jeremy’s life to help him avert a scandal. With societal triumph also come comments about Danny’s somewhat familiar looks and questions about her antecedents, of which she herself has no recollection. Before long, attempts are made on her life, and Jeremy and Danny are forced to not only outwit a most diabolical killer but also confront their own burgeoning feelings.
Author Johanna Lindsey has long bowled over the readers with her captivating tales about the dashing members of the Mallory clan. This time its young scoundrel Jeremy who gets his comeuppance in the form of a thieving slum girl, Danny. Characters are sensitively formed, and are very endearing, protagonists, repeating characters and all. historical ambiance Romance and passion go hand-in-hand with historical ambiance, even as a stimulating game of seduction begins. Humor is especially visible when Danny’s masculine style of thinking causes her to unknowingly and repeatedly thwart Jeremy’s practiced and usually successful sexual attempts. While the plot is predictable and the mystery easily solved, the story retains has enough charm and heat to hold the readers spell-bound for quite a while.
Reviewed by Rashmi Srinivas
for The Road to Romance
June 7, 2004
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