A Midsummer Night’s Sin

Michaels’s second Blackthorn Brothers Regency (after July 2011’s The Taming of the Rake) pairs an heiress with a bastard son of a marquess. Regina Hackett, a shipping merchant’s daughter, decides to attend a forbidden masquerade ball with her flighty cousin, Miranda. After Regina is seduced by Robin “Puck” Goodfellow, she wants to leave, but Miranda is nowhere to be found. Regina enlists Puck’s assistance, and soon he learns that Miranda is not the first blonde-haired blue-eyed woman to disappear in London and that the slave trade is still very much alive. Clever banter between Puck and Regina reveals the complexity of Puck’s character, while Regina proves herself to be so much more than a simpering debutante. The historical elements of the slave trade and the variety of social prejudices imbue the novel with powerful realism that will keep readers coming back. (Dec.)