BLACKSTONE'S BRIDE - Kate Moore
Berkley Sensation
ISBN: 978-0-425-25088-4
August 2012
Historical Romance

London, England - 1825

After mortgaging all of his entailed properties and selling the rest, Lyle Massing, Baron Blackstone is in desperate straights.  The offer from Goldsworthy, the man he's been playing cards with on the ship returning Blackstone to England, sounds suspicious, but is too good to pass up.  A year and a day in the service of his country is a small price to pay for the return of his fortune.  But a month after his return, Blackstone gets a mission that will have him revisiting his past—and the woman who broke his heart.

When Violet Hammersley's brother goes missing, the government assigns a man to pose as her fiancé to protect her and to find information that might lead to Frank Hammersley's recovery.  The last person Violet expected to see in that role is Blackstone, the man she was in love with until scandal broke and, believing him to be unfaithful, Violet broke their engagement.  After five years, she's sure that she is over the loss, yet Blackstone is as handsome and charming as he was when she first met him.

BLACKSTONE'S BRIDE is a charming romance with a bit of suspense thrown in.  Blackstone and Violet have known each other since they were seventeen and thirteen respectively, when Blackstone first spent a school holiday with his friend, Frank.  The son of a baron and the daughter of a wealthy banker should never have been more than acquaintances, but there was always something more between them, and eventually they became engaged.  The scandal that painted Blackstone as a rakeshame divided them, and both feel betrayed: Violet because of Blackstone's infidelity, and he because Violet knew him better than anyone, she should have known better than to believe the scandal.  Five years after their break-up, they are forced to work together to find out what happened to Frank.  The more they investigate, the more Blackstone starts to realize that the government isn't sure of Frank's innocence, and the mission becomes even more vital.

Two other men are working with Goldsworthy, so there is the possibility of more connected books, and there is also a loose connection to Ms. Moore's Sons of Sin series.  A captivating tale, check out BLACKSTONE'S BRIDE.

Jennifer Bishop