My Own Private Hero (The American Heiress Series)

Julianne MacLean has done it again, in the third of her American Heiresses series. In My Own Private Hero, the third and most sensible sister, Adele, has agreed to marry a most suitable and decent Viscount. She is on her way to his estate in England, when she is kidnapped. The Viscount, who is an endearingly geeky scientist, sends his more adventurous and daring cousin Damien Renshaw, Baron Alcester, to rescue her. This is the beginning of a soul-searching, passionate romance where both Adele and Damien must test their loyalties and discover what they truly want from life. What I love about Ms. MacLean's writing is that she creates a wonderful world of glamour and intrigue, yet her characters are very real and down-to-earth. Adele is a fresh, outdoorsy girl who feels ill-at-ease in her manicured surroundings; Damien is a passionate, outdoorsy man who seeks a woman he can relate to. The end result is a passionate, sensual romance that keeps you reading until the wee hours of the night. Can't wait to see who is in the wings for Lily!

As a romance reader for 15+ years, I have developed both a passion and a descerning palate for my favorite genre: historical. I have read the 'Grand Ladies' over and over again, Mary Balogh, Jo Beverly, Mary Jo Putney. I'm thrilled to say there's another historical romance author who is fast rising on the heels of these wonderfully talented ladies: Julianne MacLean. What a delight to disappear into one of her books! If you enjoy multi-layered characterization, detailed, authentic historical atmosphere, and a truly beautiful, gut-wrenching lovestory, Ms. MacLean is the author for you. Mary Balogh can alway gets my heart tied up in knots, often with one line. The talented Ms. MacLean can do it, too. In this, the third instalment of her best-selling 'American Heiress' Series, Damien and Adele are forced to question their loyalties as they experience a passionate desire which overrides everything. For MacLean's characters, love always comes with a huge pricetag--maybe that's why I love her books so much. I anxiously await her next historical gem!!

I LOVED this book! I'm keeping it, and going to read it again and again. Every single character was so well written I hated to see any of them leave a scene, except of course, when they were leaving Adele and Damien alone! Talk about sparks! The historical setting and atmosphere read like a picture book. I literally could not put this book down, nor did I want to.

I loved this hero so much, I read the book three times. The heroine, Adele Wilson, is kidnapped and rescued by the wrong man, who definitely turns out to be Mr. Right. Damien Renshaw, Baron Alcester, is the cousin of Adele's fiance. Her fiance is a nice guy, (and we all know what happens to nice guys). He can't leave off his experiments long enough to rescue his beloved, so it falls on Damien to do the rescuing for him. Damien is far from a shining knight. He wonders how much his cousin would regret the loss of his beautiful, angelic bride, and he's a bit slow remembering that "not coveting" clause in the ten commandments. He's even slower keeping his hands to himself. By the time he remembers, it's far too late. Angelic Adele has definitely been drawn into sin. But, if a girl's going to cheat on her fiance with his cousin, who's also his best friend, then Damien's the guy to do it with. Besides, she needed a little corrupting. She was in serious danger of becoming a dull old lady with too many cats, so Damien saved her from that fate, too. And since we know her basic goodness will rub off on him over the years, these two are a match made in heaven.

Setting - England, May 1884 --- Miss Adele Wilson, the last and youngest of the three American heiresses, was the quiet, perfectly obedient daughter, never giving her parents any trouble. She had seen her two older sisters, Sophia and Clare suffer through scandal and heartbreak in their quests to find the husbands of their dreams, but this was not going to happen to Adele. She didn't join her sisters in their quest for adventure when they were younger, and she certainly wanted no part of a `season' in London now enduring endless balls and soirees. What she longed for was a simple life in the country with Harold, the British Lord who had asked for her hand in marriage. He was everything she had hoped for, steady, kind and sincere who, like her, expressed a desire to live on his country estate, rather than in the city. Although, her peaceful plans went awry, when after crossing the Atlantic, Adele was kidnapped from the ship when it docked to pick up more passengers. Drugged, Adele had no knowledge of how long she'd been held nor where, after having been kept unconscious during the flight. Some days later she was still hoping for Harold to come and rescue her. Only he sent his cousin, Damien Renshaw, Baron Alcester. He was not exactly her knight in shining armor but more of a dark avenger when during the fight, Damien killed her captor and she was wounded. Damien and Adele would then spend several soul searching days together before she could be quietly returned to her family without anyone the wiser and keeping her reputation intact. Totally intrigued Damien treated her with the utmost courtesy and respect. A known rake, he loved his cousin Harold and though Adele attracted him as no woman ever had, he was determined to resist his cousin's very proper and quite beautiful fiancé. Adele, on the other hand, wasn't making it easy on him. Aware of the tales of Damien's scandalous reputation Adele was not immune to the pure animal magnetism he exuded and she, the most sedate and proper of the three sisters, was for the first time in her life having the most improper thoughts imaginable. This was an extremely good story as the last of the American heiresses conquered the British aristocracy. It was so satisfying to see Adele, finally gain some spirit. Damien agonized over his guilt while trying to be loyal to the cousin he loved as he knew he'd finally found the one woman who should be his. This was especially apparent when he realized that she didn't really know Harold well enough to know that the life she wanted would truly be found with him. The author penned delicate and brilliant dialogs and compassion into a lovely sensual awareness as she showed us the metamorphous from the perfect obedient girl to a woman of passion in this fabulous end to the American Heiresses trilogy. While a total stand alone novel, this along with the other two entries are a total `series keeper set'! --- Marilyn Rondeau, for www.historicalromancewriters.com --