A Dangerous Man

Two brilliantly drawn characters who attract the reader as well as each other. This is Ms Brockway at her best - witty, engaging characters, and a good storyline. As an earlier reviewer said - well worth a reread ( or more).

Thats it! I MUST read slower! This gem from Connie Brockway is to be savoured, not sped through - how does one read slow enough to make a delightful book like this last a week, rather than a few hours? A ridiculous combination of prim Regency & menacing Westerns turns into a magic mix in Brockways capable hands. Never too grim in spite of the sober & tormented Earl of Perth, Hart. The delightfully articulate Merry Coltrane runs into Hart at a very proper country houseparty hosted by a duke, Ashton, who is expected to announce a match with Harts youngest sister Annabelle momentarily. After his outrageous past as a gunslinger in the Wild West, Hart has been living circumspectly and pouring money into his sisters futures. Which they may or may not have appreciated... Merry is seeking her brother and attempts to hire Hart to find him - not an attempt which goes over too well. The rest of the story draws out a grand tale of attraction, reputations, love and as ever with Ms Brockway - Wit. A wonderful book to grin through, and wow! As someone who has never had the slightest interest in the bygone days of American lore, (not since Little House on the Prarie, at any rate) I am freshly entranced with the myths: lowslung holsters battered stetsons dangerously attractive ranch hands John Wayne? kotori 2005

As usual, Connie Brockway has written a fascinating, heartbreaking, beautiful and triumphant love story in her intensely passionate novel, A Dangerous Man. Wealthy and dazzling Mercy Coltrane has gone to England all the way from Texas to find her beloved brother, who has lost himself in London's Victorian underworld. Though she has been introduced into society with the ostensible purpose of finding a husband, she has the means to make only one man help her with her real objective: to find her brother so she can reconcile him with their father. Hart Moreland, the Earl of Perth, had thought that his gun slinging days in Texas would remain secret, especially on the eve of assuring his last unmarried sister's engagement to Lord Acton-a marriage into the ton made possible with the funds he'd secretly amassed as a hired gun. Mercy's arrival at the Duke of Acton's house party threatens all his plans and plays havoc with his senses. Not just because Mercy still bears the scar where he shot her six years before. And not only because she'll do anything to find her brother, including blackmail. Not even because she's the most beautiful, enchanting, smart and capable woman he's ever met. But because she's able to sense and to touch places inside him no one has ever seen before-places he himself cannot bear to face. Connie Brockway masterfully develops the entertaining, deep and emotionally powerful relationship between Mercy and Hart with her characteristic finesse that brings them alive as people and makes the reader care deeply. Their witty and unwilling courtship develops into such a genuine yet heartbreakingly impossible love that the reader cannot put the book down for a second until their triumph is assured. A Dangerous Man pleasurably explores the gamut of intense emotions and crackles with irresistible sensuality. It is a must for any romance reader.

Ms Brockway has created a exquisitely tortured hero and a lively, compassionate heroine. Hart has done whatever it took to help his family after his father abandoned them, including enlisting. He fought a war in Africa at a very young age, and now suffers from Post-Traumatic Stress Disoder. Of course he just thinks it is cowardice. He was also a gunfighter in Texas and New Mexico so he could raise marry to support his sisters. Texas is were he first meets Mercy. Mercy is in England to find her brother, who has quit writing. She hears that Hart will be at a country house party and gets herself invited. She tries to persuade Hart to help her find her brother. After numerous tries she decides to blackmail him. They dance around their feelings never daring to hope the other loves as they do. This is a wonderfully written book.

This is one of those books you just can't put down for very long. (I read it in a weekend and stopped only long enough to ride our horses.) There is no "fat" in the writing. Every page, every line moves the story along until you are just swept away with the main characters. Hart and Mercy are the perfect romance leads. He is brave and tortured, she is smart and unconventional. Ms. Brockway writes delightful dialogue with lines like this: After a particularly rough seduction Mercy says to a distraught Hart, "If you've come to apologize, I will kill you. Maybe not today. Maybe not tomorrow, but someday, somehow, I'll shoot you." Made all the more poignant since she is a remarkable marksman. What a woman! All Ms Brockway's books are exceptional, each in their own way. This one is different as well. Hart is a little over-enthusiastic in his desires for Mercy, but she doesn't seem to mind and neither did I. It's a great read.

With "A Dangerous Man", Connie Brockway has created a tortured hero with an actual reason to be tortured and an intelligent, strong and compassionate heroine. I loved watching the attraction between Hart and Mercy develop and seeing them overcome not only their own doubts, but the censure of the English elite. Hart's conflicts with his own needs and his honorable compassion creates just the right tension to justify his actions. The underlying sense of intrigue and danger also helps to spice up the plot. If you love "McClairen's Isle - The Passionate One", I think you will also enjoy this very satisfying book and it's two unconventional lead characters.