Arrow to the Heart

Blake ( Wildest Dreams ) is at her best in this historical romance, a fine piece of unashamed escapism set in antebellum Louisiana. Katrine Castlereagh is dutiful wife to the mysteriously incapacitated Giles, whose mad desire for an heir leads to a dastardly scheme to mate her with the victor of his yearly medieval-style tournament. True-hearted Rowan de Blanc comes to the tourney for reasons of his own: believing Katrine to be responsible for his half-brother's death, he wants to learn more about her. Although attracted to each other, the pair refuse to fulfill Giles's plan--so he imprisons them, naked, in a tower on the grounds of his estate. They decide to cheat Giles by becoming lovers but avoiding pregnancy, thanks to Rowan's training in Arabian techniques of ``self-control.'' True love and sensuality are awakened, only to be threatened by a fire in the tower. Blake's language is as lush and sensual as her protagonists' affair, although there are too many porcelain-edged teeth and coral-rose nipples, and the sex is so prodigious and frequent that it begins to bore. However, the intriguing combination of passion and intellect in both Katrine and Rowan gives some edge to a story satisfyingly capped by several neat plot twists. (July)