Season for Desire

Romain’s fourth Regency-set Holiday Pleasures romance (after Season for Scandal) makes for toasty fireside reading. Winter travels bring rugged American Giles Rutherford together with not-so-proper-but-oh-so-British Lady Audrina Bradleigh. Their paths cross in the moorlands of northern England, where Giles and his father, Richard, are in hot pursuit of lost family jewels. Audrina is with fortune-hunter David Llewelyn, her former lover turned kidnapper. Her infuriated father, Lord Alleyneham, enlists the Rutherfords to capture Llewelyn and uphold the family honor, and vows to help them retrieve the missing gems in exchange. The thwarted Llewelyn threatens blackmail and otherwise casts gloom over the impending holidays. Meanwhile, as Giles and Audrina begin to fall in love, self-doubt plagues them both. Romain’s gift for creating a strong sense of place, complex characters, and gripping situations carries this holiday tale of improbable love. (Oct.)