Silver-Tongued Devil

The prose in Blake's latest (after Shameless) is rather like rococo art: complex, often lyrical and a tad grandiloquent. After an explosion destroys the riverboat on which she is traveling, Angelica Carew awakens to find herself supposedly wed to her rescuer, Renold Harden. Renold, she learns, is the stepson of Gerald Delaup, late owner of Bonheur, the Louisiana plantation her gambler father had won in a game of cards. Renold, convinced that Angelica's father had cheated to gain Bonheur, will go to any lengths to reclaim the land that rightfully belongs to his mother and half-sister-including force Angelica into a miserable marriage. While an enjoyable read, the characters come off as vapid and uninspired: Renold's hatred and vengeance falls flat, while Angelica, in her annoying blandness, justifies and accepts everything Renold does and says. Read this one for the rich texture and exquisite attention to antebellum detail. (Feb.)