A Season to Be Sinful

Starred review from August 15, 2005
When the footpad who saved him from being knifed in Covent Garden turns out to be a woman, Viscount Sheridan takes the badly wounded Miss Rose and her three young streetwise "protectors" to his country estate -and finds himself in danger from an unexpected source and in love with a woman who has secrets even more terrible than his own. Graced with exquisite passion, flashes of humorous charm, and protagonists who develop beautifully over the course of the book, this story is, nevertheless, exceptionally dark at the core. Depravity, sexual abuse, mental manipulation, and expediency are only some of the issues that war with trust, love, and honor in an intricate plot that will keep readers enthralled. Goodman ("Only in My Arms") has written numerous historicals, including the popular "Compass Club" quartet.

Copyright 2005 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

August 1, 2005
The knife was meant for him. Not that Viscount Sheridan realized this; he assumed the cutpurse slipped. Sheridan only learns the truth after three of London's grimiest urchins approach him for the money he promised in exchange for information. The boys lead Sheridan to "Miss Rose," their unofficial guardian, who tried to stop the children from picking Sheridan's pockets and was wounded in the process. It is only after he takes Rose and her charges home with him that Sheridan discovers not only that Rose wasn't carrying a knife at the time of the attempted robbery but also that Rose isn't even her name. An eminently respectable hero with a few secrets of his own finds his comfortable world shaken up with the arrival of a courageous woman with a dark, dangerous past in this deliciously complex Regency historical. Goodman's elegant and wryly witty style ensures that her latest is a perfect treat for readers who enjoy smart, sensual love stories a la Amanda Quick.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2005, American Library Association.)