SEIZE THE FIRE

Author: Laura Kinsale ISBN: 1402213964 10/2008 HISTORICAL Publisher: SOURCEBOOKS
Time Period: 1827

Shipwrecked and stranded, their very survival depends on each other... An unlikely princess, exiled and innocent... Her Serene Highness Olympia of Oriens-plump, unassuming, and demure-longs to return to her tiny, embattled land and lead her people in justice and equanimity. But with her evil uncle on the throne, she needs a protector and Captain Drake seems like an answer to her dreams... A war hero, with hell to pay... Captain Sheridan Drake has fought his way to acclaim. Now destitute, desperate, and tortured by nightmares of the carnage he's seen, he plans to steal her jewels as well as her innocence, but finds himself immersed in a love so deep it threatens to tear them both apart. She had worshipped him from afar, but he means to rob and abandon her. What is she to do with the tortured man inside the hero's façade... ?

RRAH's THOUGHTS AND PONDERINGS:

Laura Kinsale's SEIZE THE FIRE is a royal tale unlike any other I've read. It is wonderfully broad in scope, taking the reader on an unforgettable adventure. The characters are all memorable, even the secondary characters and that includes one small penguin. Yes, I said penguin. See? I told you it was an unusual royal story!

Olympia has been sequestered her whole life, but she decides at twenty four that she should return to her small country and lead her people in a revolution. She enlists the help of a decorated knight of the realm, Captain Sheridan. What she doesn't realize—what no one can know, actually—is that her would-be hero hides enough deep, dark secrets to fill Davy Jones' locker! Sheridan agrees to help Olympia, eventually, but he has no intention of doing her any great service. His eye is on her jewels, his mind on the debts he's accrued which his father's passing isn't going to eliminate, and his heart is so busy guarding his brutal secret that it can barely see the beauty of the woman he's agreed to assist.

This book has all it takes—and much more!—to make an amazing love story. Olympia and Sheridan have chemistry before they set sail for Oriens, but when they're stranded on an island alone, their steamy love scenes could make any chilly evening very hot indeed. Oh my! Sheridan and the virgin Olympia... let's just say the man is more of a hero than anyone could imagine. And there are so many twists and turns plot-wise, that I wondered if the pair would find happiness together or part ways. I am not going to divulge that here, but I will say the story ends as it should, and the deepest secrets are explained so fully that they brought tears to this reader's eyes. Wonderful story, written with the finesse of an expert storyteller!

Laura Kinsale's SEIZE THE FIRE is pure enchantment.

Kay James