Beyond Seduction

September 3, 2007
After six unsuccessful months of wife-hunting in London, Gervase Tregarth, earl of Crowhurst and the second-to-last unattached member of the Bastion Club (last seen in series prequel Captain Jack's Woman), reluctantly agrees to the requests of his three mischievous younger sisters, who would rather their brother find a local lady they can vet and approve. He doesn't have to look far before he finds Madeline Gascoigne, acting regent of nearby Treleaver Park, a now-independent woman he's lost touch with over his years abroad. Gervase decides to satisfy his end of the deal by pursuing Madeline, but only "enough to make his declaration of incompatibility credible." However, it's harder to win some time with the disciplined woman than Gervase foresees, and soon a cast of supporting characters (including Madeline's three younger brothers) are scheming to get the couple together. Complicating matters are the continuing machinations of Malcolm Sinclair and a nameless villain who believes Madeline's brothers know where to find a missing treasure. Though it's a reliable serving of rogues and romance, Laurens's latest feels like less of the same; reliant on too many stock plots and situations-not to mention Laurens's endlessly spiraling euphemisms-it's ultimately too safe to satisfy.

August 20, 2007
After six unsuccessful months of wife-hunting in London, Gervase Tregarth, earl of Crowhurst and the second-to-last unattached member of the Bastion Club (last seen in series prequel Captain Jack's Woman), reluctantly agrees to the requests of his three mischievous younger sisters, who would rather their brother find a local lady they can vet and approve. He doesn't have to look far before he finds Madeline Gascoigne, acting regent of nearby Treleaver Park, a now-independent woman he's lost touch with over his years abroad. Gervase decides to satisfy his end of the deal by pursuing Madeline, but only "enough to make his declaration of incompatibility credible." However, it's harder to win some time with the disciplined woman than Gervase foresees, and soon a cast of supporting characters (including Madeline's three younger brothers) are scheming to get the couple together. Complicating matters are the continuing machinations of Malcolm Sinclair and a nameless villain who believes Madeline's brothers know where to find a missing treasure. Though it's a reliable serving of rogues and romance, Laurens's latest feels like less of the same; reliant on too many stock plots and situations-not to mention Laurens's endlessly spiraling euphemisms-it's ultimately too safe to satisfy.

Copyright 2007 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 15, 2007
As part of a domestic truce with his sisters, all of whom want their brother to marry a local miss rather than a London lady, Gervase Tregarth, the Earl of Crowhurst, agrees to postpone his trip to London and spend the next three months at his estate in Cornwall scouring the countryside for a suitable candidate, whom he will then marry if, and only if, she meets his exacting standards. To convince his sisters he is serious about his search, Gervase begins spending time with his neighbor, the coolly competent and quietly beautiful Madeline Gascoigne. But what begins as a flirtatious game of seduction soon turns into a serious campaign for marriage once Gervase discovers he is falling in love with the utterly beguiling Madeline. In the latest addition to her addictively readable Bastion Club series, best-selling Laurens spices up her superbly sensual, elegantly written love story with a generous measure ofintrigue, and the results are splendidly entertaining.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2007, American Library Association.)