28 January 2011

The Untamed Bride (Black Cobra #1)

The Untamed Bride by Stephanie Laurens is the first book in her Black Cobra Quartet.

The Black Cobra is a notorious pirate who, with his cultists, has been terrorizing villages in India. Five special forces soldiers of British East India Company have been tasked with finding him and ending his reign. But when they find that the Black Cobra is an Englishman they know they have to tread carefully.

Working with Dalziel from the Bastion Club series, they devise a plot to bring evidence back to England - once they find evidence that will hold up in a British court. Each man will take a different route back so that the Black Cobra will not know who has the true evidence and who has a copy.

This first volume in the series follows Colonel Derek Delborough from India back to England to deliver his evidence. But as he lands on England with his household from India he finds that his family, having heard of his return has volunteered him to escort a woman from the docks back to his home county.

Of course the last thing Del needs is to add a woman to the dangerous game he is playing. But the woman is not what he expects. Deliah Duncannon is returning to her family home after taking care of her uncle's estate in Jamaica. She is more that capable of taking care of herself and resents that society dictates that she has to travel with Del and on his schedule.

Laurens has written a great historical romance taking all of the elements readers love about her series and adding an exciting new plot device. Characters from both her Bastion Club and Cynster series appear and play important roles in the story. Fans of her other series will be thrilled to see old favorites again. Laurens takes the proscribed gender roles of the time and fills her books with women who will not sit idly by while there is action afoot.

Laurens, Stephanie. (2009). The Untamed Bride. New York: Avon Books

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