Ravished, by Amanda Quick

I've started rereading JAK's Amanda Quick books. Looking through them yesterday, I realize I haven't reread most of them in a while, so here I go. The first one I chose is Ravished, a Beauty and the Beast story and one of my favourite Quicks.

Plot summary:

"Gideon Westbrook is helping Harriet Pomeroy track down the thieves who are using her caves for hiding stolen goods. She is one of the few people who does not fear Gideon, despite the horrible scar on his face and the gossip about his past. For the first time in years, he has met someone who puts her total trust in him, and realizes that he cannot bear to be without her. There is also one more thief they have yet to catch, which is the one person that can ruin the love that has blossomed between Gideon and Harriet."

Posted later...

I finished Ravished earlier today and I flat-out adored it. An A. I didn't remember this one was so good.

As I said below, this one's a Beauty and the Beast romance. Gideon, who is actually called "The Beast of Blackthorne Hall by society, is one of the best tortured heroes I've read in a long time. He really is suffering, and has completely lost hope in finding someone who'll believe him. Quick conveys his loneliness beautifully, and the scenes where he realizes Harriet trusts him absolutely and finds him attractive are heart-wrenching.

Harriet is a typical Amanda Quick heroine: curious, reckless, a bluestocking. She might be a bit of a stereotype right now, but there's a freshness in her that makes her cute, not irritating. She does some things that are TSTL, but you tend to forgive her. ;-) Of course, at the time this book was written not all Regency heroines were bluestockings, so that's probably why she doesn't feel like a cliché. Quick was one of the first to write this type of heroines, after all.

The recurring theme in this one is fossils, and it is a compelling one. It's interesting to see how the discipline got started, and a bit reminiscent of the amateur egyptologists in the Amelia Peabody series.

The suspense subplot is the weakest element here. It feels disjointed, probably because we have two different mini-subplots going on here. Interesting though.

Finally, this is one of the hottest books I've read lately. The first love scene... I melted, and the rest of them were nice too.