His Captive Lady by Anne Gracie

I'm feeling particularly hopeful about romance at the moment. There seems to be a small resurgence of character-based, emotional stories - I've read several this year, and I have a few more in my TBR pile. For a while, I despaired about the future of romance - it seemed like character-based books were being abandoned in favor of suspense, erotica, "kick ass" heroines and evil-fighting vampires. It's so nice to see emotional stories making a comeback.

His Captive Lady by Anne Gracie
(2008, Regency Historical) 10/18/08
Grade: 4.5

When Harry Morant sees a wet but lovely young woman in the back of a wagon, he impulsively gives her his hat and gloves. To his surprise, he finds out that she is Lady Helen Freymore, the daughter of the former owner of the house he is buying. He is immediately attracted to her, but Nell is bound for London, and is hiding a secret that she cannot reveal.

A lovely, emotional book with two strong characters. I particularly loved Harry, who was strong and kind and unwavering in his love for the heroine. (I particularly liked the scene where Nell tells him her secret, and he accepts it and loves her all the more.) Nell was somewhat less developed than Harry, because she spent so much of the book driven to find Torie, but she’s also a strong and loving heroine, and a good match for Harry. The secondary characters were also delightful, although there was a bit of “old home week” during the last few chapters, setting up characters for their own books. Overall, the book was focused on the relationship between the hero and heroine, and even the external focus (the search for Torie) grew out of the characters, rather than coming from outside. The problems were minor - I thought the sleepwalking bit was pretty contrived, and the ending was tied up a little too neatly. But overall, it was a wonderful, enjoyable read - just the kind of book I love reading!

My one question about this book - who picked the title? The heroine is never a "captive", unless it's meant in the metaphorical sense (she's a captive of her past, or something like that?) It's very misleading, and I probably would have avoided this book if it hadn't been recommended, since I hate captive romances.