My rating: 4 stars.

This book is well-written, because Stephanie Laurens is a talented writer, and I was pleased to find that it was every bit as good as many of the earlier Cynster books.

Eliza and Jeremy were both likable, but I thought Eliza's inability to ride was a little silly. I get that a fear of horses/riding is not that unusual, but in her horse-mad family -- someone would have helped her get past that.

I liked that Jeremy wasn't the usual macho rake that is typical of most...

My rating: 4 stars.

This book is well-written, because Stephanie Laurens is a talented writer, and I was pleased to find that it was every bit as good as many of the earlier Cynster books.

Eliza and Jeremy were both likable, but I thought Eliza's inability to ride was a little silly. I get that a fear of horses/riding is not that unusual, but in her horse-mad family -- someone would have helped her get past that.

I liked that Jeremy wasn't the usual macho rake that is typical of most historical romances. He was a brilliant scholar, but he risked his own life to rescue Eliza. And I absolutely loved that he wasn't afraid to confront his feelings, and admit that he was in love with Eliza.

I also liked that their experiences in her rescue helped both Jeremy and Eliza grow, and learn more about themselves and what was important to them. By the end of the book, they had both changed a great deal for the better.

I did find it a little difficult to believe that the couple would have wanted to have so much sex when they had been traveling -- without a chance for bathing or a change of clothes -- for days. They were probably both filthy, and had terrible body odor. Most people would not want to have sex in that situation.

My rating system is below.
1 star -- Hated it, or did not finish. I usually only give this rating if some of the content is truly objectionable to me, like if one of the main characters does something really awful, and gets away with it.
2 stars -- Didn't like it. This rating usually means that I thought the writing wasn't very good, the editing was terrible, I didn't like the characters, or it had other major flaws.
3 stars -- I liked it, but had some minor issues with it. This rating means that there were minor editing issues, the story needed more character development, it was just too unrealistic, or had some other fairly minor issue. The majority of books I read get this rating – I do not consider it a bad rating.
4 stars -- I liked it a lot. This is a high rating for me, and I rarely give a higher one.
5 stars -- I loved it, and will probably read it again. Very few books are good enough to get this rating from me. The ones that do are usually classics.

I love novels that have the characters racing for their lives through many locations, and this was quite the ride! I very much enjoyed Eliza and Jeremy as characters, the first characters I’ve read of Laurens’ that don’t fit the regular Cynster mold. I loved that Jeremy doesn’t try and suppress his love or hide it away. And Eliza may not be a headstrong FMC, but she knows what she wants and never flinches when it matters. Lovely novel!

I love novels that have the characters racing for their lives through many locations, and this was quite the ride! I very much enjoyed Eliza and Jeremy as characters, the first characters I’ve read of Laurens’ that don’t fit the regular Cynster mold. I loved that Jeremy doesn’t try and suppress his love or hide it away. And Eliza may not be a headstrong FMC, but she knows what she wants and never flinches when it matters. Lovely novel!

It was their new selves, their changed selves, that fit so well together. That night, after they’d all retired to their rooms and the castle had quieted beneath the blanket of the night, Eliza stood before an open window looking out at the dark panorama of the Cheviots, and, once again, retrod the line of logic that held her there—looking out at the night, the fingers of one hand locked around the rose quartz pendant lying between her breasts, her white poplin nightgown ruffling gently in the...

It was their new selves, their changed selves, that fit so well together. That night, after they’d all retired to their rooms and the castle had quieted beneath the blanket of the night, Eliza stood before an open window looking out at the dark panorama of the Cheviots, and, once again, retrod the line of logic that held her there—looking out at the night, the fingers of one hand locked around the rose quartz pendant lying between her breasts, her white poplin nightgown ruffling gently in the breeze, with her feet firmly planted. She wasn’t going to go to Jeremy’s room tonight. She couldn’t. Because she couldn’t push. Because, courtesy of the revelation that had come to her on the battlements that afternoon, she’d realized that she had to wait for him to make up his own mind. She’d fallen in love not with the scholar but with the man he’d shown himself to be during their flight through the lowlands. That was the man who had captured her heart, and she was perfectly certain that the she he’d come to love enough to protect with his life was the lady who’d sat beside him in the gig as they’d rocketed along the lanes on the other side of the Cheviots. He had to decide whether or not he intended to remain the man he’d become through their reckless flight, or whether he wished to revert to his earlier self, the scholar and nothing more. For herself, she’d already made her decision. The life she could live as her new self, in her new incarnation, was so much more enthralling and exhilarating than the life she would have lived as her previous self. She would embrace her new self, her new life, her new purpose, and accept whatever risks might come. But she couldn’t make that decision for Jeremy any more than he could have made the decision for her.