Bestselling author Quick's ( Rendezvous ) latest
lovers are a pair of bibliophiles whose engaging
qualities should help her many devoted fans
overlook this work's fatal flaw: it is an
unconvincing attempt to draw a parallel between a
Regency romance heroine and a medieval hero on a
quest. Lady Phoebe Layton's "quest" is to track
down the person who killed her suitor, Neil
Baxter, and to "bring the villain to justice."
Neil was making his fortune in the South Seas,
where he reportedly was killed by a pirate who
stole an old and valuable book she gave him; rumor
says the book is back in England. Ignoring the
fact that real questers don't delegate, Phoebe
persuades fellow book collector Gabriel Banner,
Earl of Wylde, to find the rare tome and the
murderer. Phoebe's growing attachment to Gabriel
prompts him to consider using her to seek revenge
on her father, who, eight years earlier, ruined
Gabriel and drove him out of England--to the South
Seas. Quick expends little effort on this revenge
scheme, which is in no danger of coming to
fruition; as a result this fantasy castle seems
built on a foundation of sand.