A Dangerous Man

Title: A Dangerous Man (1996)
Author: Connie Brockway (Dell)
Period: European Historical-Victorian (1878 England)
Grade: B+

I'm a sucker for a great cover. And by great I mean old-school bodice rippers cover. The trend of flowers and rainbow covers imply that we should be ashamed of reading romance novels. I wasn't wild about Connie Brockway the first time I read her but I couldn't resist this cover. Happily, I was not disappointed the second time around.

American Mercy Coltrane has come to England to find her missing younger brother. She hopes to enlist the help of an English gunslinger who once worked for her father's ranch & shot her. However, Hart Moreland was living a double-life in Texas because he is an earl attempting to hide from his unsavory past. Mercy appears at a house party where Hart is trying to arrange the marriage of his youngest sister to a duke. Desperate, Mercy blackmails him into assisting her locate her brother.

A Victorian, A Dangerous Man, highlights the seamy underside of London most Regencies ignore. The brother's opium addiction is painted in descriptive and grim detail. Most importantly, Mercy and Hart aren't perfect people. They make mistakes. They hurt each other. They say the wrong thing at the wrong time. But they don't behave like children. They are two adults who (slowly) fall in love with someone who is the exact opposite of who they imagined they'd love. It is a gradual feeling out process, but the tension never seem forced nor the characters stupid.

Good show, Connie! I'm now on the lookout for earlier Brockways.