Shadows of the Heart

With her late mother, Joan, Grant was half of the pseudonymous Anthea Malcolm (A Sensible Match). But her first solo effort shows she has more than enough talent to fill a book by herself. Set in the Scottish Highlands and Lancashire, this action-filled Regency brings together an unlikely duo: a heavily pregnant aristocrat and a radical journalist. Both are fleeing for their lives, lives that were once intertwined in the last bloody days of the French Revolution. Amnesia is a cliche, but Grant uses it beautifully as the tangled plot unravels and amoral villains are revealed. Adding sexual tension to the fast-paced suspense is Grant's skillful depiction of the growing attraction between Sophie Rutledge and Paul Lescaut, a handsome pair of consenting adults. (Nov.)