Anne Stuart, The Devil’s Waltz

The Devil's Waltz

Anne Stuart

Mira, Feb 2006, $6.99, 384 pp.

ISBN: 0778322734

Viscount Christian Montcalm needs to pay his bills off soon or face disgrace. He decides gambling will keep the collectors at bay for a short time; instead he needs a biddable wealthy wife. He chooses seventeen year old Hetty Chipple, daughter of a rich shipping magnate Josiah, who wants his offspring accepted into high society.

Josiah hires Annelise Kempton to teach his daughter how to behave amidst the Ton and serve as her escort. Annelise believes she is on the shelf because she is too tall, too smart, and too outspoken for her male peers. When she catches Hetty trying to sneak off with Christian, she intercedes and rips his skin off. To his surprise he finds himself attracted to the "Dragon" and plots to wed her charge and bed her. Annelise knows her job is to keep the undesirable fortune hunting wolf away from Hetty. As Annelise and Christian battle, they fall in love, but they both know they are too poor to marry, besides which, neither trusts the other. That is until she rescues him from the teen chatterbox.

This Regency gender war is a well written romantic romp starring two wonderful enemy combatants fighting over a spoiled teenager. The storyline is at its best when these two strong protagonists go toe to toe and lip to lip. A late smuggling suspense is also well-written, but seems unnecessary, as the skirmishes between the lead couple makes for a delightful historical romance.