Starred review from June 3, 1996
Hell's teeth! Readers will no more be able to put down Quick's 12th Regency romance than Imogen Waterstone can fend off the delicious advances of Matthias Marshall, Earl of Colchester. From page one, Quick's contract with the reader is clear. Nothing is as it seems, and the plot teases until the happy ending. Of course, the earl known as "Cold-bloodied" Colchester will turn out to be a lamb and a love. Of course, the woman dubbed "Immodest Imogen" is a virgin beneath her heaving bosom. And there's no doubt that the two shall marry, for they make a great business of announcing all the reasons why they can't. But even if the romance is a sure thing, there's suspense enough. At great peril to themselves, Matthias and Imogen must unravel the identity of a pair of cunning murderers who have infiltrated high society. Quick, who is Jayne Ann Krentz writing pseudonymously, has created another golden link here in her long chain of bestsellers (Mystique, etc.). Her alchemical formula? Feisty yet feminine women, sublimely ironic men, amusing chat, hot sex and a sprinkling of period vocabulary and details--but not enough to make it feel like a history lesson. Major ad/promo.
July 1, 1996
With her latest novel, Quick again elevates the Regency suspense novel to an art form through appealing, quirky characters and a rollicking plot. Fans of Elizabeth Peters' archaeologist heroine Amelia Peabody ("The Hippopotamus Pool" ) will embrace a kindred spirit in Imogen Waterstone: independent, verbose, and a keen student of the lost kingdom of Zamar. When Mathias Marshall, earl of Colchester and foremost authority on all things Zamarian, comes to Waterstone Manor to fulfill a promise he had made to Imogen's late father, they immediately strike sparks at each other's touch. Quick lives up to her name by allowing her duo to skip the obligatory squabbling and circling of each other that many romance novelists insist on. Confessing their passion for each other, they marry and embark on the true business of the novel: discovering the source of the society intrigue that results in gossip, accusation, and eventually murder. Playing delightfully on Regency England's fascination with ancient Egypt, Quick gives her fans another sexy and thoughtful historical romance. ((Reviewed July 1996))(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 1996, American Library Association.)