I Thee Wed, by Amanda Quick

I think I Thee Wed was the book after which I stopped adoring Amanda Quick's books and started just liking them as comfort reads.

It isn't easy making a living as a lady's companion when one possesses a sharp tongue and an original mind. That's why Emma Greyson has gone through three such positions in six months. Her current post at a tiresome country house party has her bored to tears--until an extraordinary encounter with the legendary Edison Stokes leads to a secret position as his assistant.

Stokes is on a peculiar mission, searching for an anonymous thief who has stolen an ancient book of arcane potions. He suspects his quarry is among the party's guests--and that the villain is looking for an intuitive woman on whom to test a certain elixir. A woman just like Emma...

For Emma, the new post brings unexpected passion and chilling danger. But when murder strikes, she realizes the awful truth. Unless she and Edison devise a scheme to outwit a merciless killer, she could forever lose the man of her dreams--and even her very life....

I Thee Wed is actually hard to grade. It's very easy to read and very engaging. I'd probably give it a higher grade if it had been written by new author X. I realize this is unfair, but I know Amanda Quick can do so much better, that the disappointment factor has to apply. My grade: a B-.

On the positive side are nice characters and Quick's trademark humour. What there was of the romance was quite nice, too. I really enjoyed certain elements like how Emma kept insisting that Edison write her her reference, and Edison's reaction, his annoyance, was a nice way of showing that he had started to care about her and simply didn't want to think about her going her own way when their investigation was over.

The problem was that I felt there just wasn't enough emphasis on the romance, and this made the book a bit flat. They were a bit too focused on the mystery, and this simply wasn't engaging enough for me to be happy to give up space to it that could have been devoted to the romance.

Oh, well, I think I'll do better to go and reread my old Quick favourites.