Scoundrel

I won't go over the story line; others do that much better than I. I'll just tell what I got from the book. While shopping for other authors one day, I took a chance and picked this one up. I had not read any of her books before this. I was very pleased. I thought it was well written with humor, steamy romance and a `who done it' mystery to boot. I appreciate when a regency romance can on occasion give us a couple that are closer in age, rather than a teenage girl with a mature man almost twice her age. I realize that may have been more normal for the times, but love does come to those of a similar age. The sizzle was good, which has become important to me the more I read these types of regency romances.. If the story does not eventually display a good physical chemistry between the characters, the book tends to feel flat (no Co2 in the soda pop, so to speak). That can also be true in the reverse too. (So much Co2 in the soda pop that the story line and characters suffer). This one pulled the chemistry off very well, and was just steamy enough to make you want more. Note; I feel there are authors out there who can pull that off without a lot of heavy sex, but I have no problem with books full of steamy stuff either. Some of my favorite 5 stars books make me blush. I was captivated with the idea behind the story line, the characters and all that entailed. Though I wanted to smack the heroine in the end as she coughed up one last major surge of distrust at the most inappropriate time, still, we are all human and it played out so smoothly and romantically that I ended up appreciating the author's talent for pulling it all back in line neatly. He was definitely a well developed and desirable hero that I would have fallen for. I even enjoyed the fop of an uncle as well as the rest of the family side characters. Never knew where the mystery was going either. I love a story line I can't blatantly predict or that I predict wrong. I was truly surprised. This book felt different to me and enjoyed reading it.

This was the best plot I have ever read in a romance novel, it exceeded most crime/suspense novels in the number of twists and turns in the plot. Just when you think you actually know what's going on and who is who, something else happens to prove you wrong. While I know all romance must have a happy ending, who the real villain was and how all this could ever lead to a happy ending kept me guessing right up to the last few chapters. The characters were both realistic and intriguing. As the story continued I grew more sympathetic and attached to the hero than I ever have to any character in any other book. His back story is something I will remember for a very long time. It is very rare that a book makes me care about the characters, but this one did. This was the first book I ever read by Debra Dier, but I very much enjoyed her writing style. Far too many romance novels today revolve around the heroine and do not give the hero equal attention. A romance is equally about two people and this book captured that quite well. I was also glad to see an author ignoring the current publishing trend of keeping a single point of view in each scene. Her mid-scene point of view switches were well executed and the story was better for them. The only criticism I have of the writing style was the short sentence structure, which is a matter of personal taste and something I got used to after a few chapters. Overall, the best romance I have ever read and among the best books I've ever read. My first novel by Debra Dier but certainly not my last.