Deception by Amanda Quick

From the Publisher

From Seduction to Surrender and Reckless to Ravished, New York Times bestselling author Amanda Quick has spun one thrilling love story after another. Now, in her long-awaited hardcover debut, she introduces her most endearing heroine and compelling hero, in a dazzling, daring tale of lost pirate gold and legendary love... Deception.

BookList

Jayne Ann Krentz, a best-selling paperback author, makes her hardcover debut as Amanda Quick with this romance set in England in the early part of the nineteenth century. The hero is dashing Jared Ryder, viscount Chillinghurst, descendant of the notorious pirate Captain Jack. The heroine is Olympia Wingfield, a spirited and unconventional young woman whose passion is researching the customs and legends of foreign lands. These two are brought together when Olympia's uncle Artemis engages Jared to deliver to Olympia some goods picked up in the course of his travels. But Jared has a personal interest in the goods, for they include the Lightbourne diary, which is said to contain the key to a fabulous treasure buried years ago by Captain Jack and long sought by Jared's family. Inevitably, Jared finds he's irresistibly attracted to Olympia, and she to him. Soon every element in the novel, including the mystery surrounding the buried treasure, takes a back seat to the lovers' passion, which is explicitly portrayed. Despite some inconsistent characterizations and contrived plotting, this is an engaging story, with a touch of humor and colorful period details.

Kirkus Reviews

"In romance the success of an individual author is not based on how well she writes by conventional standards, but on how compelling she can create her fantasy and on how readers...can step into it with her." Thus Amanda Quick, as Jayne Ann Krentz, in her introduction to Dangerous Men and Adventurous Women (1992—not reviewed), an anthology concerning the romantic novel. Here, in the best-selling paperback novelist's debut in hardcover, Quick has provided an inviting little world of warmth, adventure, mystery, bouncy sex, and a (never oppressive) Regency setting. Olympia Wingfield, alone and vaguely raising three lively young nephews, is glad to hire on as tutor one Jared Ryder—who's not about to reveal that he's a viscount. Jared impresses the intellectual "spinster" of 25: "From his long wind-whipped black hair and velvet eyepatch to the dagger he wore...he was an awe- inspiring sight." Jared's real mission is to purchase a secret diary purported to point to a West Indian treasure—a diary that the studious Olympia is deciphering, unaware of its import—but, meanwhile, as part of the household, he disciplines the soon-to-be- devoted boys (and their dogs); runs villains to ground; carries on his own shipping business on the sly; and soon, of course, becomes smitten with Olympia. Amid subplots that flutter around and about like Olympia's chemisette, there's also jolly sex—during which both partners have a wonderful time. A featherlight, warmhearted fantasy with lots besides bedroom frolics going on, and it's all in a modern idiom (only one "mayhap"). Fans will welcome this perfect little popover of a romance into hardcover circulation. (First Printing of60,000)

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