The Hellion features a pair of middle-aged lovers separated by years, due to family pride and their parents' protective natures. Although they grew up paddling in the same wading pool, Tommy Lee Gentry and Rachel Hollis have apart in the same town since high school. Teen pregnancy, failed marriage, and second chances....

Separate Beds finds another a pair of college students facing their own crisis after a one-night stand brings predictable complications. A marriage of convenience blooms gradually into something much more lasting as a young woman learns to trust and a young man learns to look beneath the surface.

Propriety and Mrs. Grundy rear their heads again in Hummingbird as spinster Abigail McKenzie nurses a train robber and the man who shot him back to health. A nail-biter down to the last few pages, as Spencer keeps the tension high: will Abbie choose her fiery outlaw, or trade passion for a life of quiet, proper, comfort.

Not always the most comfortable, or the most predictable, Spencer writes a fine period romance. ( )