Library Journal

When Lieutenant Val Aston rescues Elspeth Gordon from rape and murder at the hands of Spanish bandits, he is drawn into a friendship with a woman he thinks he can never have. But the Peninsula is not London, Elspeth is unlike any woman he has ever known, and what is expected is not always what happens. An honorable, illegitimate hero who must accept himself before he can find happiness, an unconventional, outspoken heroine who values character more than social consequence, and a cast of beautifully rendered characters recommend this exceptional, compellingly plotted story. A gem of a book. Farrell (Journey of the Heart, Topaz: NAL, 1997) has also written a number of Regency romances and lives in Cambridge, MA.