What a great time for romance readers, what with Laura Kinsale, Madeline Hunter and now Connie Brockway releasing romances within a week or so of each other. Ms Brockway's previous release, SO ENCHANTING, wasn't quite my cup of tea because of the paranormal elements involved, but this new one is very good. Here we have our extremely beautiful and wealthy heroine, Lydia, whose lavish lifestyle is famous in the ton, find out in the first page that she has lost everything. Our handsome hero Ned, recently retired naval captain, returns home to find his family (headed by his older brother, the Earl of Josten) in dire straits financially. Both H and H must find wealthy mates ASAP, before the ton realizes that they are poor. I suppose you can guess how this will end and you'd be right, but it's the journey to the end that is a delight. The characters, both main and secondary, are well developed and appealing. You might expect such a beautiful and wealthy woman as Lydia to be selfish and self-centered, but no such thing. And Ned is as noble of character as they come. The story begins in a very light-hearted manner with LOL (to me) situations and dialogue, but, somehow, as you get further and further into the book, you realize that this is a beautiful, heartfelt romance. And what a pleasant surprise for once to have a hero with enough self-control to keep his breeches buttoned even when he would rather not. (And, let's face it, when the heroine would also rather he not.) No, this does not mean no sex in the story. It just means that the romance here takes precedence over the sex. There is only one thing that bothered me in this book: Ned's behaviour at the beginning of the last chapter was as exasperating to me as it was to Lydia. But all's well that ends well, as they say, and the book is still a 5-star one for me.
