Setting: Just after the Civil War of America, in the South
Heroine: Elise Worthen.
Hero: Jared Kensington
Brief Overview: Jared comes back to Virginia after the war to make good on his promise to his best friend, Logan. Now Jared is honor bound to keep an eye on Elise. However, he also has a job to do. Temporarily hired on to work as a Treasury Agent, he must find out what happened to Claude Onash, and a lot of stolen federal funds. His job also leads him to Elise, where he finds himself longing to deny his suspicions and fighting his own vow to never fall into a woman's trap. Elise finds herself falling for Jared, but is skittish as she tries to hide her big secret, that she killed Claude Onash and his son in self defense and buried the bodies.

Shakini's Review: The story revolves around the usual boy meets girl he once he knew as a kid, has to protect, can't help but suspect her, yada yada. As usual in romances, they seek to deny and resist their feelings as they go through trials together. The book itself was not a bad read. The characters were easy to care about as they were realistic, for the most part, had realistic feelings and reactions. However, though love scenes are usually enjoyable, I could have done completely without them in this book. The first takes place at what I would call a bad time. Elise is attacked, her brother is out for a walk and threats have been made against him. The guy who attacked her is foiled by the hero and runs off. So at this point, I'd be looking for my brother. Instead, they indulge in a nice leisurely lovemaking session, and then a big fight before realizing, "Oh no, where's Logan?" I skipped the love scene because of its placement. The other love scene wasn't much better. Again, the attacker is out there. Jared has only a few hours in which to find him and kill him, or discover where the money is in order to clear Elise's name, yada yada. So I'd have gone out to find the guy, but instead, they adjourn upstairs for at least six pages of a love scene. Again, I skipped it, too worried as a reader to see that the bad guy is caught. I think, as a reader, I also found a big side interest in Logan, angry ex-prisoner of war with a messed up leg, and in Dru, young Yankee woman doctor. I could definitely have seen a romance in bloom there. All in all, I did read more than I skipped, but the romance became secondary to the main story to me.