All Through the Night, by Connie Brockway

I was writing this post when I got Harry Potter. :-)

I've had Connie Brockway's All Through the Night (excerpt) in my TBR shelf for months, but I'd heard so many raves about how powerful and dark it was, that I never felt in the right mood to read it - until a few days ago, that is.

A woman compelled. . .

In the glittering world of Regency England, Anne Wilder played a dangerous game. A widowed lady by day, by night she became a masked thief preying on society's elite. She roved high above London's black rooftops, compelled by phantoms from her past to take ever greater risks. Until her restless spirit led her into Colonel Jack Seward's trap. . . where seduction was her only way out.

A man obsessed. . .

She'd played him for a fool, taking advantage of his hungry response to escape from his clutches. But as Jack hunted for his thief, his heart fell captive to a self-possessed widow. Torn between illicit passion and tender love, Jack is duty-bound to capture the audacious criminal, even if it means ripping society apart to do so. Now he stalked her through the ton, never realizing the lovely widow who captured his heart was the same woman who roused his most violent passions.

It was, indeed, powerful and dark. An A.

This woman is not afraid of writing about flawed characters with dark sides. I truly enjoyed this book, though I'm not really sure if what Jack felt for Anne was love or an all-consuming kind of obsession. I'm not even sure Anne and Jack were people I would want to know in real life. Whatever it was, it worked and made for a very compelling book.

I loved that Brockway didn't take the easy way out and make the usual excuses for her characters' behaviour. And she added a twist: Anne tried to convince herself that she was stealing only for her charity, but it was clear this was just an excuse. And Jack's conflicting feelings about his father and what he did... they made a horrible kind of sense.

And those love scenes.... oh yeah! ;-)