The Merchant Prince

What a great love story - a man willing to die to free his country, and a heartbroken young woman willing to grow and risk love again. Nicely rounded out characters, an entertaining read for Regency readers - and others - who love a good tale of love and passion. You can't beat this heroine - she's just as brave and fascinating as the hero. Kate Huntington has done it again.

In this fifth of Kate Huntington's Whitakker sisters series we get to meet some old friends again. Amelia, who was introduced in The Lieutenant's Lady, travels to Paris to visit the grave of her first love. While there she meets Andreas whose kindness is more than her heart can resist. Four years later she travels to Venice with friends and meets Andreas again. The sparks fly and her heart is captivated. Count Andreas is such a wonderful hero...gallant, handsome, and just a little vain and conceited. But you will love him! And Amelia is no wilting violet. She is definitely a match for Andreas, as she proves when his freedom-fighting activities threaten both of their lives. It is a passionate story. They love each other and need each other and they will find all that their lives are missing in each other. Enjoy this book...it is a keeper.

When I first saw this book, I thought that (judging from its title) it would be either about a romance that develops between a society beauty and a cit, or else about a romance that develops between a tonnish miss and a nobleman who has taken to trade. The last thing I expected was an engaging novel that all about a rather complicated romance that grows between a young English beauty and a nationalist nobleman. The title still makes very little sense to me; but barring that niggle, Kate Huntington's latest Regency romance is one not to be missed. It's a poignant and intriguing novel that takes place mostly in Venice. The romance plot is an interesting and memorable one, and some of the characters (esp the hero and heroine) are both delightful and appealing.It's spring of 1816, and seventeen year old Amelia Coomb is in Paris to visit the grave of her slain fiance, Lieutenant Quentin Lowell. Already in deep pain over her loss, the last thing Amelia needs to deal with is the imbecilic and brutish behaviour of her French coachman. And so she is quite relieved when a sympathetic priest comes to her rescue. His empathy and kindness touches her in a way that the sympathy of her friends and family has been unable to. And in a very short while, Amelia finds to her horror, that she has fallen in love with her kind and saintly Roman Catholic priest. Knowing that nothing good can come from her affections, Amelia leaves Paris, bitterly realising that for one so young, she has loved twice and lost twice, and that her life will never ever be as she dreamed that it.What Amelia doesn't know is that her priest is actually the Venetian freedom fighter, Count Andreas Bricceti. The count never realised until too late that Amelia had mistaken him for a man of the cloth. Not wanting to embarrass her, he maintained this charade even as he wished that he could tell her the truth. Now, four years later, Amelia's and the count's paths are about to cross again. For Amelia, along with her friends Robert and Lady Madelyn Langtry, are about to travel to Venice for a little holiday. The count had once courted Lady Madelyn before she chose to marry Robert; and now, Lady Madelyn has decided that it would be nice to pair the count with Amelia. What will happen when the two meet? Will Amelia listen to the count's excuses and forgive all? And what impact will the count's dangerous politics have on their relationship?"The Merchant Prince" is a fantastically entertaining read. It was nice to see familiar characters like the Langtrys again (characters that crop up regularly in Huntington's previous novels). And while the romance plot involving Amelia and the count was a good one, what I really liked about the novel was the manner in which Amelia's character came to life before my eyes. There was a kind of maturity and kindness and spirit about this character that made this novel readable and entirely compelling. She's the kind of heroine that most will find easy to empathise with and r