No hay hombre más irresistible que Samuel Gerard. Joven, guapo, cultivado y rico, no hay mujer que no se fije en él y no quede prendada de sus encantos. Pero Samuel parece no reparar en la admiración que despierta a su paso. Sin duda, el recuerdo de su difícil infancia sigue persiguiéndolo.
Samuel fue un niño abandonado que, al fin, fue rescatado por lady Tess Ashland, que lo trató como a un miembro más de la familia. Hoy Samuel solo desea una cosa: conseguir el amor de Kay, la hija de los Ashland.
Cuando llegan a Londres para los festejos del jubileo de la reina Victoria visitan una renombrada casa de modas. Allí trabaja Leda Étoile, una dama inglesa que lo ha perdido todo y ahora se gana la vida atendiendo a lo más selecto de la sociedad londinense. Leda se fija en Samuel no sólo por su irresistible encanto, sino porque tiene la impresión de haberlo visto antes.
Así es como el lector conocerá la personalidad oculta de este joven: un ladrón que Scotland Yard busca desde hace tiempo, alguien que actúa de forma peculiar.

Loved it but would've liked to see H/h travel back to England and have moment between Kai and Samuel or at least Samuel have the moment where he realized he didn't love Kai like that. Would've liked an epilogue or at least a little glimpse past where it ended, to see how the other characters were doing. ( )

Laura Kinsale definitely adds depth to her books and that is a good thing. I've only read [b:Flowers from the Storm|360259|Flowers from the Storm|Laura Kinsale|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1275622146s/360259.jpg|788122] before this one. And yes her books tend to be on the melodramatic side. This book started amazing but in the last 5 chapters it simply jumped the shark and went completely downhill. What a shame because it was kind of amazing so far. ( )

Quitting her job as a seamstress after being horribly insulted by her employer, the heroine is without money and destined for the streets. Then she finds a man in her room and promptly breaks his foot. The men is a thief, but he doesn't believe in calling himself one. He's been hiding in her room in the rafters for a few days now and when she discovers him, he offers her a much needed job as his secretary to stop her from alerting the police. The heroine moves into the mansion the hero lives with his adoptive family and she begins her job by reading to him and writing his business letters. The hero spends most of the book in love with the girl he grew up and, though she has no idea of his affections or even wants them, he vows to marry her. The heroine is very prudish and refuses to allow herself or other to act in any unladylike or ungentlemanly manner. She's a stickler for the rules of society but slow bit by bit, she relaxes around the hero and often converses with him in her bedroom late at night. But after yet another attempt for the hero to gain the notice of his lady love, he comes to her for companionship and in the morning, the heroine initiates sexual activities. The lady of the house finds them together and the hero, reluctantly and with undisguised bitterness, demands they marry. The hero was a giant asshole for most of the book and I found myself strongly disliking his character. He was mean to the heroine who wanted only to be close to him and help him in any way she could. At first, I thought him to be a Mr. Rochester figure. He dropped like hints that maybe he felt more for the heroine then he let on but much to my surprise, there were no secret motives on his part. He only started to feel sexual attraction for the heroine half way through the book and even after sleeping with her, he refused to marry her and instead thought to ship her off and keep her a secret like he would a mistress. The heroine was a crazy combination of prudish, brazen and feminine weakness. She often panicked in dramatic fashion and would burst into tears at the drop of the hat. But she would also sometimes have a spine of steel and refuse to allow anyone to take advantage of her. I can't truly say that I completely understood the whole subplot of the sword and his Japanese culture and I was disappointed at how the characters treated each other through the book. I'm torn because I did enjoy it but I so wish that it would have been better. PS. the paranormal aspect of the story is the whole woowoo Japanese samurai nature of the character who possesses what I would call magical talents and abilities but it's very muted. ( )

This book really sneaks up on you by starting out kind of slow and then before I knew it I couldn't put it down! Story of near destitute young woman who through a series of strange circumstances winds up working for an enigmatic, handsome young man in London. She comes to know his adopted family and falls in love with him, but he is aloof and has many secrets. Their life becomes entangled together through an arranged marriage. A bit convoluted at the end while in Hawaii and Japanese secrets, etc. Still, I really enjoyed it and now I've finally read this book I've heard so much about over the years. ( )