Jacquie D'Alessandro "Seduced at Midnight"

Lady Julianne has spent her life quietly following her family's dictates and now her father says she is to marry a Duke. But when a cat burglar starts robbing and killing ladies of the ton, Julianne does the unexpected and fakes an attack on herself to gain time with Gideon, a bow street runner working on the case.

Gideon is not a profligate lord, he's a serious controlled man who takes pride in his work and who lost his young wife several years ago. It goes without saying that he's gorgeous and inexplicably drawn to Julianne, but he's quite certain she is too good for him.

I loved their initial attraction to each other. Some of the witty dialog is missing from this book as opposed to the other D'Alessandro books, but it's replaced by sexual tension and Julianne plucking up her courage and pursuing Gideon knowing this is her last chance at passion. The middle of the book gets bogged down as Gideon gets more serious about resisting her, and she continues to be a basically timid character dreading her marriage. The plot is a bit lacking. (She says with a straight face) :)

The end is sappy but I was in love with Gideon by this point, so I allowed that and the resolution to the murder mystery to distract me. I only snorted slightly at her burning her hopes and dreams. This is a nice traditionally laid out romance novel. Well written, okay plot, decent sex and sexual tension.

Historical Romance 2009: 4 out of 5 buttons off of breeches.