From the back cover:
Who is Honesty McGuire?
That's what undercover Pinkerton agent Jesse Justiss wants to know. Honesty claims to be a helpless innocent alone in the big bad West--but Jesse's been conned by the best of 'em...and this sassy beauty is the best he's ever seen! Jesse can't trust anything but a feeling in his guy that this double-dealing lady might help him locate a missing heiress...and this fire in his heart that insists Honesty is someone he'd like to know intimately!
Honesty herself doesn't know who she is--not after the shocking confession from the grifter she thought was her father! She doesn't know who Jesse Justiss really is either--the stranger with smoldering blue eyes whom she's hoodwinked into accompanying her as she hunts down her past. Jesse's strong, sculpted body may be tempting as sin...but he's obviously spinning her some tall tales of his own! Can Honesty and Jesse stop scamming each other long enough to passionately explore their true feelings--and their blossoming, must unlikely love?
And my review:
Ever since I read Mustang Annie by this author, I have been eagerly on the lookout for more of her books. She writes marvelous characters and an action-filled plot set against a well-researched historical backdrop. AN UNLIKELY LADY was an enjoyable read that delivered on all these fronts.
What I really like about this story is that the characters are so well developed. By the end of the book, I really felt like I knew them, and was cheering for them. They were flawed enough to make them human, but not so flawed as to be unlikeable. Their interactions were a lot of fun to watch.
Despite the suggestive cover art, this story is more than just a hormone-soaked lust fest. While the hero and heroine were physically attracted to one another, it wasn't the only thing drawing them together. I really enjoyed how this author built up the sexual tension. The action storyline was also very enjoyable, but it never took too much focus away from the romance. And that's just what I like in my romance novels.
I had just a few complaints. First was that the editing was very poorly done. I came across numerous spelling mistakes, grammar mistakes, and sentences that were missing words! It got really frustrating after a while, because things like that really drag me out of the story. I was also surprised when the hero refers to a question as "the million-dollar question". Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't that a phrase that grew out of television game shows? Considering this story is set in 1886, that figure of speech seemed really out of place.
I also felt that the ending was rather abrupt. While there were no plot threads left dangling at the end, the were tied up very quickly. I also felt that some facets of this book were left unexplored when the few characters introduced within the last few pages weren't developed. I guess the author was under a page restriction or a deadline, but I would have really enjoyed an epilogue, just to see how they were all doing in a few years.
However, complaints aside, this was an enjoyable book that I will be keeping to read again. If you are planning on reading it, I recommend you read MUSTANG ANNIE first, as this book is a sequel. However, this book also works fine as a stand alone, so reading MUSTANG ANNIE isn't critical.
