Desire Becomes Her

With her trademark mix of romance and derring-do, Busbee (Rapture Becomes Her) turns out a solid tale of a wrongly accused widow and a nobleman’s by-blow in late 18th-century England. The friendship between handsome gambler Luc Joslyn and elderly gentleman Silas Ordway leads to friction when Silas’s niece Gillian Dashwood, suspected of the brutal murder of her husband, comes to visit along with her ne’er-do-well brother, Stanley, and his unpleasant friend, Lord George Canfield. Mutual suspicion devolves rapidly into mutual attraction between Gillian and Luc, even as Canfield attempts to blackmail Gillian while Luc and his family are threatened by a vengeful gang of smugglers. A delightfully eclectic cast of well-drawn supporting characters provides a pleasing counterpart to the sparkling central romance in this satisfying, well-crafted tale. Agent: Irene Goodman, Irene Goodman Literary Agency. (July)