Review: Nicely Written; Romance Lacking  **Spoilers**
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 09 21, 2013
This short story is very nicely written and I thought it was fairly entertaining.  However, as a historical romance it is sadly lacking in the "romance" department.  Dylan is a straight laced US Marshal.  As far as he is concerned everything is black or white, wrong or right, with no shades of gray in between.  However, he begins to question his principles when he meets Lacey and her younger brother, Luke.  Luke and Lacey have been orphans for 7 years.  In all that time they have only had each other to rely on....Lacey is 24, Luke 13.  Dylan is in town investigating a murder case.  He and Lacey first meet when Dylan sees Lacey skinny dipping in a stream.  He spies on her for a little while before making his presence known.  Lacey accuses Dylan of being a peeping tom and their first meeting gets off to a rocky start.  They meet again later when Dylan shows up at Lacey's boarding house looking for a room.  There is a mutual attraction between the two from the very beginning.  During his investigation Dylan realizes that Lacey and Luke are somehow involved in the victim's murder.  When he finally discovers the truth Dylan is conflicted about what to do.....should he follow his principles or his heart?  The entire story takes place over a period of  two days and they are in love!  As is to be expected in a short story the plot developed at a brisk pace.  But, I never got the feeling that Dylan and Lacey really loved each other.  I just didn't see how they could.  It was obvious that Dylan was in thrall with Lacey, but love?  Furthermore, Dylan's actions in dealing with the conundrum presented by Lacey and Luke was very much out of character.  On the one hand we are told that Dylan is a straightlaced person who sees everything as either black or white, right or wrong, and on the other, we are asked to believe that he just blithely disregards all his principles for a woman he met less than 48 hours ago.  It just wasn't very believable.  I didn't see where Dylan's character had developed to the point where he would have done such a thing.  I found myself wondering how Dylan was going to manage living with himself in the long run in light of the fact that he had compromised his principles for Lacey.  I gave the book 3 stars because overall it was an enjoyable read.