The Secret Passion of Simon Blackwell
Samantha James
Avon, Apr 2007, $6.99
ISBN: 0060896450

By 1848, Simon Blackwell has learned to distrust passion after what happened five years ago. Though declared to have survived his ordeal by his physician, Simon knows otherwise as he hides in the moorlands, especially from aristocratic females. Only for his remaining maternal relative Aunt Leticia will he venture to odious London and this is because she begged him to attend her seventieth birthday bash.

In London, Simon meets Annabel McBride and is unable to resist a kiss. She burns from his touch and he feels likewise. Forced to marry, he vows for convention and convenience only while she vows for passion and friendship. Simon refuses to open his heart as love hurts while Annabel refuses to accept anything less than his here as love liberates.

THE SECRET PASSION OF SIMON BLACKWELL is in many ways a typical Victorian romance with a disturbed dark protagonist and a courageous heroine willing to risk her soul to more than just help him as Annabel knows that is not enough. She will do what it takes to earn his eternal love as nothing less is acceptable. Their relationship makes for a fine historical tale as readers will root for Anne to achieve what seems like a bodacious unattainable goal: winning the heart and soul of her beloved.

Harriet Klausner