Review: Didn't appeal to my romance-lover side.
Rating: 2 out of 5
Date: 09 1, 2011
This lady wishes the book had made a bit more sense.  Nine years ago Nikolas Acton and Lady Patricia Morgan spent one day in each other's company, without revealing to each other their identities.  They agree to meet again the next day but miss each other by just...this...much.  And then both go on to live separate lives while still being obsessed with each other to the point of overkill.Patricia is forced to marry a man she doesn't love, who is cold and seemingly indifferent to her except for uninspired sex and the procreation of two sons.  Nikolas goes on to become a heroic and famous sea captain in the Napoleonic Wars, who has sexual encounters but never romantic ones.Nine years later they accidentally meet again, learn each other's identities and eventually manage their HEA.  (This because her husband was kind enough to be killed in the war.)  Along the way to the HEA, we have some secondary characters to "entertain" us (although no character in the book is very well drawn), an "adventure" involving finding an unspecified treasure, and we readers find out towards the end who the "deus ex machina" is who has arranged this chance encounter of the two star-crossed lovers.If you are of the romantic nature which accepts that a 1-day anonymous bonding session (just talking and kissing, no actual sex) will keep two people obsessed with each other for almost a decade, to the absolute exclusion of romantic feelings for anyone else ever again, this is the novella for you.  It is also part of Ashe's "Rogues of the Sea" series, so in that respect it may be interesting to you.