cover image A Fire in the Heart

A Fire in the Heart

Katherine Sutcliffe. Avon Books, $6.5 (0pp) ISBN 978-0-380-75579-0

Sutcliffe's ( Renegade Love ) latest is a pleasant if predictable Victorian-era tale of opposites attracted to each other, starring nobleman Damien Warwick, ``the biggest womanizing rakehell in England,'' and young Bonnie Eden, who seeks refuge in his castle after escaping from a brutal workhouse. Their slowly growing love is sweetly conveyed, despite the artificial obstacles Sutcliffe throws in the way of their ultimate happiness. Sutcliffe's great strength here is her characterization of Bonnie: ignorant even of the connection between sex and pregnancy, and, at the same time, burdened by too much knowledge, particularly of the horrible circumstances of her father's murder. The plot twist that resolves Bonnie's long search for her father's killer is neatly penned without undue melodrama. (Mar.)