Well, I’ve made my first discovery of 1999, and I’m very happy about it (okay, technically I read the book in 1998, but it’s got a 1999 publication date so I’m fudging a little). Strong characters and a sweet love story make this novel a winner.

Samantha Northrup, the vicar’s daughter, is awakened in the middle of the night by a man demanding keys to the family crypt of the Ayleboroughs. When Samantha refuses to give him the keys, Yale Carderock, the son of the late Duke of Ayleborough, steals them and goes to see if his father truly is dead. He gives Sam a false name, and doesn’t tell her who he really is. After Yale falls ill, Sam is forced to nurse him and then marry him after the townspeople see that he’s been in her house naked.

Yale marries Sam not only because she has been compromised, but because after her own father’s death, a new vicar waits is waiting to take over her house. Where will she go? What will she do? The townspeople no longer seem to care about this sweet young thing. Yale’s good intentions only go so far, however; he intends to set her up in style and leave her so he can go back to his shipping company in Ceylon. It doesn’t happen that way, though, when Yale’s brother shows up, and Yale is forced to tell the truth. Yale spends the rest of the book trying to earn Sam’s forgiveness and love while Sam tries to stand hard against his advances.

Yale and Sam are both strong characters. Samantha’s sweet but stubborn and a little naive. She’s always been nice and helpful to the townspeople and has used her skills as a healer to help them, and she’s genuinely shocked when they try to boot her out of town. The best thing about her is that, sweet as she is, she does have a backbone.

Yale is as hardheaded as they come. His family thought he was dead, he left them to earn his fortune, and now he’s trying to leave again. His brother is determined not to lose him again, and Yale must stand his ground because he thinks there’s no way he can stay. He’s still trying to prove himself. What’s a man to do? Why, continue to get what he thinks he wants, of course, until he realizes what he really wants.

The reason I liked this book was that while it was not just a simple romance (there were some deeper issues involved), it was simply romantic. While I love a good romantic suspense, this was not that kind of book. Instead it was the story of two good people working their way toward each other and toward what they both want – love. This type of story reminds me a lot of Andrea Kane.

Also making the story interesting was Yale’s brother, the Duke. He’s nice and charming to Sam, and they have some delightful conversations while Yale boils in the background as Sam ignores him (shades of his troubled relationship with his father). The family servant Fenley is also a gem. He serves as a confidant and advisor to both Sam and Yale.

I finished this book with a smile on my face. While Yale could have let go of his issues with his father a little sooner, on the whole, this story was well done. Watching these two people try to overcome issues and be happy together was a treat. Their every action showed their feelings for each other, even though they might not have realized it. I even went out and glommed three other Maxwell books before I finished this one so I would have more to read. If you’ve never tried Maxwell, give this one a chance.