Confessions of a Little Black Gown
Elizabeth Boyle
Avon, Apr 2009, $6.99
ISBN: 9780061373237

In 1814 the Crown's master spy Lord Larken is assigned to assassinate Dashwell the American pirate who just escaped incarceration. Though he hates the assignment as he and Dashwell were friends before the second war with the colonies erupted; to accomplish his mission, Larken pretends to be a bumbling somewhat reticent vicar, Ryder, a cousin to a duke.

The Langley sisters Thalia and Felicity (see LOVE LETTERS FROM A DUKE) helped Dashwell escape from prison. Thalia's luggage goes missing, but she receives someone else's trunk containing a little black gown that she puts on. When Thalia and the vicar meet, she rejects the notion this man is shy and clumsy; instead she believes he is hiding behind an image as she sees his gracefulness. He knows she abetted the pirate, but though he wants to arrest her he finds her arrestingly beautiful while she hides Dashwell from Ryder, a man who scares her because she is attracted to what he conceals.

This is a wild Regency romance in which the War of 1812 has made friends and lovers into enemies. Larken seeks the woman who possesses the black gown because she will enable him to expose Napoleonic agents. However, he ends up with the wrong female due to the luggage mishandling. Filled with spins and twists, the latest Bachelor Chronicles is a terrific amusing historical filled with a warm romance and pot "boyled" intrigue.

Harriet Klausner