The Earl of Her Dreamsby Anne Malloryreviewed by Lynn LamyNovember 2006, 384 pages, Publisher: Avon, ISBN: 9780060872953 Back Cover Blurb: Facing the choice of flight or a wedding she cannot abide, Kate Simon has chosen to flee. Disguised as a boy, she takes refuge in a roadside inn, and finds herself rooming with intensely secretive Christian Black. Kate is breathless in the presence of this handsome, mysterious rogue whose piercing gaze seems to strip her naked. But neither suspects that a savage storm and a murder will draw them closer together still. But not the passion in their hearts
Christian dares not let anyone learn of his haunted past – or that he is, in truth, the Earl of Canley – especially not a slip of a girl whose masculine attire cannot disguise the exquisite female form beneath. But now that destiny and a dastardly crime have united them, Christian can no longer contain his desire to taste the nectar of Kate's sweet kiss. Danger certainly abounds, but the gravest peril might be resisting a once-in-a-lifetime passion that can heal all wounds.
Christian Black shows up at a roadside inn disguised as a servant. He's hoping to retrieve something stolen from a close friend and figures that showing up dressed as a servant will get him less noticed that showing up as himself, the Earl of Canley. What he finds at the inn is much more than he bargained for. For one thing, the young man with whom he has to share a room isn't a young man at all, but rather a young woman. For another, a serious snowstorm has the inn full of restless guests for days, causing mayhem and even murder.
Kate Simon thought that she was safe. She has escaped her brother and his plans to marry her off to his detestable friend (for her fortune, of course), and she has only days to wait out before she gaina her majority and freedom from her brother. In order to escape pursuit, she has dressed as a man, determined to play least-in-sight until her birthday. When she is matched up with Christian Black for a roommate, however, she finds that many things aren't always what they seem. For instance, the man whom she thinks at first to be a servant turns out to be the one man that can make her heart soar. For another, the people she has been living with in the inn for several days are also not what they appear to be.
Christian and Kate pair together to solve the murder of one of the inn's guests. I liked Christian a great deal, finding him to be his own man and a true friend. His determination to pursue Kate even while she's dressed as a man is a bit humorous at times, and it is easy to see why Kate is attracted to him. Kate is woman who has taken her life into her own hands, and she's determined to take her fortune in her own hands as well. Dressing as a man isn't the best decision she ever made, but she has her head on straight. She and Christian are a good pair right off the bat.
I liked the tension between the characters, how they each have something they hold back from the other. They open up to each other slowly, for coming to trust someone else isn't easy for either of them. I thought the plot was an interesting one, a bit like some Agatha Christie mystery, with everyone trapped in the inn for a period of days, and a large number of people having a motive to do murder. I think my only real issue with this book was that it was more mystery than romance. And it was a bit surprising that either one of them should know quite so much about solving a murder mystery, but that didn't bother me much. Towards the end I thought the book digressed a bit too much, as well. It isn't a major problem, but it did grate on me a bit. I thought it could have all finished off a bit differently.
If you like a lot of mystery to your romance, then give this one a try.
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