Castaway Hearts (Signet Regency Romance)
When Lydia Peartree embarks on an afternoon sail from Exeter Harbor with Captain Matthew Frobisher and his unlikely crew of schoolboys, she has no inkling of the excitement, danger, and passion she will encounter. A freak storm blows them off course and across the Channel, and a broken foremast dictates their landing at an abandoned village in Brittany, where they are attacked by a group of brigands. After they're captured, the gang's leader recognizes Matthew as a former spy named Nightshade, "the ubiquitous English weed with a deadly effect," and sells the information to his vengeful nemesis, the all-powerful Comte de Chabrier. Butler's charmingly fast-paced Regency combines espionage, betrayal, theatrics, gypsy fortune-tellers, and more as she recounts Matthew's thrilling race to Paris to rescue the woman he loves and the boy for whom he is responsible from the clutches of the evil Comte. Her realistic portrayal of the time period just after Bonaparte's exile to Elba and the ravages of war add depth to the story.Lynne WelchCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved