I give this book 4 stars only because I liked the heroine and the setting of the story. One of my favorite time periods for historical romances is the setting of the lush South in states such as Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, and Louisiana so I really enjoyed reading the descriptions of the southern plantations of Natchez and those outside New Orleans in Deceive Not My Heart.

Leonie Saint-Andre is the heroine and lives on a plantation in Louisiana that has seen better days. Her grandfather has squandered the family money on alcohol and gambling and they teeter on the edge of bankruptcy, when he suddenly realizes that he should provide for Leonie, he decides to find her a wealthy husband to care for her when he dies. The weatlhy husband he chooses for her is Morgan Slade, but unknown to her, the man she marries is not Morgan but his scheming cousin from England Ashley who promptly sails back to England with her dowry money with the signed agreement (forging Morgan's name) he'll pay her back in 5 years.

The hero and heroine meet when Leonie travels to Natchez to get her money back to save her beloved home and plantation. Naturally, the hero is angered and outraged that the heroine insists they were married when he clearly doesn't even know Leonie and never saw her before!

What I didn't like about this book was the hero, Morgan Slade. He was burned years before, getting his heart broken, when his first wife left him and in the process got herself and his young son killed. So he has a grudge and mistrust of all women and when he meets Leonie he can't trust her completely despite his instant attraction for her. He knows that Leonie is "different" somehow as he's never felt this strongly about a woman before (except his dead wife) yet he starts thinking all these horrible things about Leonie and how she's just a greedy woman out for his money (he refers to her as a b**** quite frequently, which I found repugnant). Leonie doesn't act like the liar and scheming woman he wants to believe she is, and so he goes from warm and tender to cold and harsh in the blink of an eye and vice versa many times. He can't quite stop comparing her to his deceitful first wife.

On the other hand, Leonie was a very strong and likable heroine. She had guts and courage from the very beginning of the book. When the hero does find out how he wronged the heroine throughout her entire stay at his home, IMO, he doesn't do enough groveling for her forgiveness. After the hero realizes this, I kept expecting the author to make the hero work for his heroine's love and affections, but it never occurred. The ending was especially frustrating for me, because the hero never apologized for his actions, in particular a very *big* and *bad* action on his part to the heroine in the beginning of the book.

Definitely read this for the descriptive detail of life on a plantation and in the South, and the heroine, Leonie. The hero could have been better. ( )