5.0 out of 5 based on 3 reviews. – Customer review on 23/10/2010

The 3rd in the Bastion Club series and the best. This time we are in Cornwall with Charles and Penny. They are a pair of stubborn and high-strung lovers, never getting enough of each other. The intrigue comes from a mystery surrounding jeweled pill boxes and state secrets being passed to the French during the Napoleanic Wars.

If you love lots of hot, steamy love scenes mixed with international espionage during the Regency, you will have a blast reading the latest of Stephanie Laurens. If you have a "modesty meter" don't read it.

4.0 out of 5 based on 3 reviews. – Customer review on 21/06/2007

Charles wishes he could find love, or at least a woman who won't bother him. So that's why when he finds the beautiful Penny sneaking about he feels he feels a mixture of thrill, dread...and remorse.
Because years ago they loved each other, or thought they did, but when their relationship was consummated it also ended.
And Charles doesn't know why...

4.0 out of 5 based on 3 reviews. – Customer review on 05/05/2007

In 1816 Bastion Club member Charles St. Austell feels good for some of his fellow founders who have found love and marriage, but also is impatient to find and marry the proper uncomplicated wife. With that in mind and the need to pick his own spouse without matchmaking interferences from well meaning mamas, Charles takes advantage of a Home Office assignment to learn if someone is smuggling secrets out of country near his home.

At his house, Charles sees Lady Penelope Selborne sneaking around the home. Unbeknownst to him, Penelope believes that her distant cousin Nicholas is working with the smugglers and seeks the evidence to prove her assertion. As she gets embroiled in danger, Charles tries to keep her safe until he realizes he has fallen in love with an improper complicated woman.

Though very similar to the previous tales (see A Gentleman's Honor) fans of Stephanie Laurens' rousing Regency romances will appreciate this latest romance as the lead couple competes to uncover the identity of who is giving away secrets to the smugglers. Charles does not believe Penelope meets his criteria for a wife although he cannot help being there as she faces perils because to his chagrin he loves her.

Harriet Klausner