The Pursuit (Sherring Cross)
Energetic and expansive, good-natured and lusty, with enough flouncy dresses and galloping steeds to equip a comic opera, the sequel to Say You Love Me should delight Lindsey's many fans. From the moment that Melissa MacGregor and Lincoln Burnett set eyes on each other, they know they must be together. There's just one little problem actually, 16 very big problems: Melissa's uncles, who remember Lincoln as an out-of-control kid when they were growing up in Scotland. (After losing his father in an accident when he was a little boy, Lincoln was sent away by his mother to live with an aunt and uncle in England, and his bitterness toward his mother has grown ever since.) The uncles' obsession with Melissa's safety is just the excuse the clan of six-footers needs to treat Lincoln with brutish incivility for instance, conniving to stow him on a slow boat to China. But love cannot be shanghaied in a Lindsey novel, at least not for long, especially when it has a heroine like the strong-willed Melissa. The lovers pass one test after another, in the drawing rooms of the London season and the rugged terrain of the Highlands, meanwhile sharing hot kisses and the requisite night during which nothing goes unsaid or undone. What makes Lindsey special is that all her characters, major and minor, seem thrilled to be in the story; they manage even to have fun while pining or punching. There are no villains, only flawed human beings, occasionally misdirected by their loving hearts.