Smitten by Books

Destiny
Author: Victoria Grey
Publisher: Wild Rose Press
Pub. Date: April 11, 2010
Retail: $6.75
Pages: 316

Emma Davenport was going to be a bride, and no one was going to stop her, not even an outlaw. Bound for a forbidden marriage, her scheme shatters when she is abducted and spirited away to a remote hideout. Any proper young woman would be frightened out of her wits, but she challenges her daring, seductive captor at every turn.

Major Jack Travis was used to the battlefield, not stealing spoiled, sheltered women from trains, but his orders have come from one of the most powerful men in Washington. The by-the-book soldier never doubted his ability to carry out orders until he laid eyes on Emma. His captive is intelligent, headstrong, beautiful – and forbidden. He risks his neck to protect her from the treacherous rake she’d planned to marry. But how can he protect her from himself?

~*~*~

Alas, alack, woe is me! My lovely little Sony PRS-505 finally gave up the ghost after many, many months of devoted service. I was the first person I knew who got an ereader, and I feel like I’ve lost a friend, a confidante, a part of my body.

One reason I became so devoted to my ereader was that it introduced me to the wide world of romance available from e-publishers. There are some very good stories out there in the land of virtual books.

One of those is Victoria Grey’s DESTINY, a 333-page U.S. Civil War era romance from Wild Rose Press. In general, I am a staunch Anglophile in my historical romance tastes, and so I approached DESTINY with a bit of concern. No lords, no foxhunts, no French spies! Could I read such a thing?

Well, I am happy to report that I can, did, and would again. This was a delightful little story which combined good old romantic attraction between two likeable leads with a healthy dose of intrigue by some dastardly Rebel sympathizers who are out to harm the heroine.

Emma Davenport, a Senator’s daughter, is secretly slipping out of Washington to meet the man she intends to marry when she is abducted from her train. The kidnapper, Jack Travis, aside from being unforgivably dashing, is not the low, evil person Emma assumes him to be – he is actually a war hero on a secret mission for the Union Army. As he holds her prisoner, the attraction between them builds like thunderclouds before a summer storm.

Why would the Army want to abduct a senator’s daughter? What is the truth about Emma’s fiance´, the handsome Christopher Staton? Will Emma and Jack ever just throw respectability to the winds and do what she, he and we want them to get on with? These and more questions are answered quite tidily by Ms. Grey.

Now, I am always a sucker for a good declare-himself speech by a historical hero. When Jack tells Emma

“If you were mine, I’d never willingly put you in a situation where you’d be in danger. I’d lay my life on the line to protect you, not put you in harm’s way while I sat tight and waited for you to come to me.”

I wanted to yell, “Emma, you dolt! Pick Jack! He luvvvvs you more than Christopher ever could!!!” Luckily, I didn’t; DH was snoring away while I stayed up into the wee hours with Jack, Emma and a glass of pinot.

One or two little things, as always with a nit-picker like me – a little closer editing would have helped. (One tempts someone’s ‘palate’, not ‘pallet’, for example.) But overall, DESTINYis a quick, fun read with some likeable characters. I will be checking for more releases by Victoria Grey’s!

Rating: 8 (Very Good)

Heat-Level: 3 (Sensual)

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