written by Harriet Klausner on 02/01/2007
Good Groom Hunting
Shana Galen
Avon, February 2007, $5.99
ISBN: 0061124966
In 1811 England, eighteen year old Josephine Hale, who always believed her grandfather's tales about the high seas, treasures and female adventuresses, decides the time is right for her to prove if his tales are true. She owns half of what is allegedly a treasure map and plans to obtain, if necessary purloin, the other half, though her nemesis Stephen Doubleday possesses it. Their families have been feuding since her kin killed his on their ship the Good Groom.
Josephine assumes the only way she can get the map from Doubleday is to seduce it out of him. He, in turn, finds a seduction by a wild beauty intoxicating, and the thought that he could get her half of the map to find the treasure invigorating. However, as they fall in love, the lethal pirate One Eyed Jack wants the entire map and is willing to kill two landlubbers for it.
GOOD GROOM HUNTING is a fun Regency romance with a bit of a mystery, involving the murder of Stephen's grandfather, a treasure hunt with a dangerous pirate in pursuit, and a love story between bitter enemies. Sub-genre fans will enjoy this wild ride from London to the High Seas, as two sworn combatants find the greatest treasure of them all.