Julia Justiss, The Untamed Heiress

The Untamed Heiress

Julia Justiss

HQN, November 2006, $6.99

ISBN: 0373771134

When his wife ran off with her lover, Lord Lambarth punished their daughter Helena, keeping her a virtual prisoner at their castle for the past decade. Nine years ago she escaped, but the villagers simply returned the wee girl, whose mind they assumed went over the edge when her mom vanished to her irate father. Only the recently deceased medicine hermit "Mad Sally" enabled Helena to survive her captivity. Now her dad is dead, but instead of mourning her sire's demise, Helena rejoices, as she is finally free and plans to find her mom.

She goes to London, though she has no idea how to behave amidst the Ton. Her moms cousin, Lady Lillian Darnell takes in Helena, who learns her mom died, but left behind loving letters for her. Helena meets Lillian's step son, Napoleonic war hero Adam and falls in love with him. However, he needs a wealthy spouse to fix the mess his late father left the family in, which means this wildcat living with Lillian is out of the question, so why does his heart tell him to marry for love not money.

This exciting regency focuses on abuse amidst the aristocracy, in which everyone ignores the obvious signs so as to not have to deal with an unpleasant situation. (Sounds familiar?). Thus, the storyline is driven by Helena who struggles with adjusting to "normalcy", that includes cruelty after being a prisoner for so long. Though the ending is too inside the sub-genre's boundaries, readers will empathize with THE UNTAMED HEIRESS as she tries to join a society that blames her for the travesties of her parents.