When We Touch (Zebra Historical Romance) [Mass Market Paperback]

Maggie has found herself set up for marriage to a very nice but still just the same, old man. She must make this match since her twin brother has mad a hash of the family finances, and Maggie feels that it's better for herself to make a match for convenience sake then her brother doing the same and never marrying for love as she once had. See Maggie is a widow she married far beneath her station when she married her love Nathan a police officer who was killed in the line of duty. She wants her brother to experience love as she did. She also feels that she will never find love like that again so she is the perfect choice to make the sacrifice. What she was not counting on were the feelings that Lord Jamie makes her feel. Her soon to be husbands great nephew makes Maggie feel a whole lot of emotions and one of those emotions is attraction!

Jamie wants to dislike Maggie it would make things so much easier if he did. Problem is he finds that despite her forays into Whitechapel and the work she does with the poor, he still finds her attractive and this is something that does not sit well with him at all. His problems don't stop there, he has been asked to not only watch out for Maggie by his uncle, but Queen Victoria has asked him to look into the horrible murders that have been plaguing the East End. At first he thinks he has two assignments imagine his horror when he finds out that the two are actually intertwined and the Maggie may be the next victim.

Despite that fact that Maggie is actually married to Jamie's uncle and in fact does not last long since the Groom does pass away the relationship between Jamie and Maggie is carefully constructed and very romantic. The mystery of Jack the Ripper was well done and added to the story. The Victorian time period is one of my favorite periods and Ms. Drake as managed in this book to pull me in and not let go until the final page of the story.

However, Langdon's nephew Jamie is appalled with the nuptials between his beloved great uncle and a gold digger who scandalized all by once marrying a commoner. Though attracted to his "aunt", he wonders if she is a deadly black widow as rumored when Langdon dies. As Jamie and Maggie become acquainted over what is best for Langdon's recalcitrant daughter, they also become embroiled in the Ripper case and end up falling into an unwanted love.

WHEN WE TOUCH is an exciting Victorian romance that fans will appreciate due to its deep look at the late nineteenth century (especially female options) and a strong cast anchored by the lead couple. The story line is fast-paced with no one quite like they first appear. The Ripper subplot adds danger and a sense of the era so that the audience receives a powerful historical police procedural inside a charming romance between two combatants.

Harriet Klausner