The Bride Sale
Appalled to see a lovely Englishwoman about to be sold to the  town's most repulsive bachelor at an illegal "wife sale,"  reclusive James Harkness, "Lord Heartless," impulsively bids for  her himself and wins. But there is much more to Verity Osborne  than he expects, and as she fights her own insecurities and  struggles to maintain her dignity, she glimpses the tormented  man behind Harkness's cold facade and sets out to save him with  life-changing, ultimately romantic, results. Borrowing from both  The Bartered Bride and Beauty and the Beast, Hern seamlessly  interweaves diverse plot threads with a full complement of  realistic, complex characters to form a poignant, compelling  historical romance that is both true to the period and unusual  in its detail. An old mystery adds interest, and the bleak and  beautiful Cornish landscape lends a Gothic touch. Hern (Miss  Lacey's Last Fling) is an established writer of well-received  traditional Regency romances and lives in San Francisco. This is  her first historical romance.Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.