When a notorious rake hears a nun cursing in a French Inn he is immediately captivated. Bored and seeking amusement, he offers to help her reach England. She accepts and the rake gets more than he bargained for because although she is fresh from three years in a convent, this lady is no nun. She is, in fact, the bastard daughter of an English lord desperately seeking her father’s protection now that her mother is dead and a rejected lover is stalking her through Europe.
So begins an historical road trip story. The pair flees France in disguise having adventures involving murderous prostitutes, smugglers, kidnapping and romantic encounters before reaching their destination.
Once in England the woman finds her father and is acknowledged by him but his name doesn’t provide the protection she hoped for. Her jilted lover attempts to take her from a masquerade but her rakish hero saves her. We are led to believe that the two live happily ever after.
I must be honest and admit that I read this book some time ago and though I remember liking it at the time I am hard pressed now to remember what about it appealed to me in particular.
I was surprised by the ease with which the heroine was accepted by a rich and powerful father that didn’t know of her existence until she showed up on his doorstep but sometimes you have to suspend your disbelief for the sake of the story.
It was nice that the heroine wasn’t a retiring virgin nor a feisty woman-of-the-world. She was no innocent. She’d had a lover but things hadn’t worked out and she was in no hurry to take another but neither was she trying to hide her ‘shame’ which was realistic and refreshing.
A few familiar characters from an earlier work made an appearance near the end of this book and it’s always fun to catch up with old ‘friends’.
In the end this was like a lazy summer afternoon-enjoyable at the time but nothing made it stand out from all the others of its ilk and while remembered with a general fondness for its kind this particular one is, only a few weeks later, ultimately forgettable.-Lynn
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