delete_me ( )

A fun historical romp that has a mystery attached. Strong female (Alice) finds a stone with a legend attached and wants to study it, strong male (Hugh) wants it to fulfil the legend, they team up to find the stone. He's relentless and strong, she's clever, red-headed and stuborn. It's clever, fun and an easy read. I particularly liked where she had a book of healing recipies but the author avoids telling us exactly what was used (excepting a potion with poppies that another character was using and there is some tutting) ( )

Though it’s well past the decade mark since publication, Mystique is one of Amanda Quick’s best; it employs conventions that she uses in other novels, but that work particularly well here. Newly landed knight Hugh the Relentless persuades Lady Alice to enter into a temporary betrothal for both their advantages, but with the goal of persuading her to marry him for real. That’s a favorite device of Quick’s, along with the shared quest, a heroine seeking love matched with a hero who doesn’t believe in it, and the hero’s assistance with the younger male(s) in the heroine’s charge. No, there’s nothing surprising here, but that’s kind of the point, isn’t it? Moreover, some of the tics that annoy me in other books by Quick are not included. Often, Quick’s heroines act recklessly and get themselves in trouble from which they must be rescued. That does happen here, but Alice also does things right, and her interests and authority are respected, as when she decides to come to the rescue of the family of Hugh’s sworn enemy. Great beach reading! ( )