Borrowed Dreams has a lot, a lot, going for it, but ultimately its story gets bogged down in its own intricacies, its flawless heroine, and its wildly divergent points of view. It shows remarkably good effort, but the result is not as richly satisfying as it could have been.

Millicent Wentworth is a widow whose husband was one of the most loathsome people in England and the West Indies. Determined never to marry again, Millicent is also frantically trying to right some of the wrongs – specifically the slave trade – enacted by her husband when he was alive. Millicent’s husband, however, left a vast pile of debts which an equally unscrupulous (but far more alive) man has bought, leaving Millicent on the verge of losing everything.

An old, ailing woman, the Dowager Countess Aytoun, has a proposition for Millicent. Her son, Lyon Pennington, Earl of Aytoun, suffered a damaging accident that left him an invalid dependent on opium. He spends most of his days looking out the window, apparently catatonic. There are concerns that he is mad, and his mother wishes to have him taken care of after she is dead, an event she expects fairly soon. She believes Lyon needs a wife who will see to his care and she offers Millicent the position. The marriage will – by necessity, because of his injuries – be a marriage of convenience, with Millicent providing care and protection in exchange for the Dowager settling her debts and providing a generous allowance. Millicent agrees, with the proviso that the marriage can be annulled if he recovers enough to make it a true marriage.

Millicent, meanwhile, has assembled a household made up of white British servants and West Indian freed slaves. She is fair, honest, caring and gentle. The only thing “wrong” with her is that she is not a beauty, and even though she definitely has her charms, Millicent herself doesn’t recognize them and is quite insecure about her attractiveness. She approaches Lyon’s care with the same warmth and humanity she displays towards her “family” of caregivers, and he reacts with suspicion and hostility, his only enjoyment coming from tormenting her. Eventually, of course, he recognizes her inner beauty, and begins to fall in love with her. The scenes where he tries her patience exhibit some of the liveliest writing in the book, and although it was nice when they finally overcame their antipathy, I was secretly hoping they would have another argument.

Lyon is a sexy hero possessing sensual authority even when his legs are immobile. His change from opium-addicted invalid to overwhelmingly handsome (overwhelming to Millicent, at least, who continually doubts her own attractiveness as compared to his) sexual entity was a convincing one. Regretfully, his POV ends towards the last quarter of the book, which was disappointing since it would have been fun to see trhough his eyes the changes he’s wrought in Millicent.

Entwined between Millicent and Lyon’s love story are many other threads told from many other viewpoints. At one point I counted no fewer than ten points of views, which can be disconcerting in a book whose primary focus should be the love story. But the writing is strong enough, if usually two-dimensional (evil slave-owner, wise old slave woman, naïve and romantic servant, brutish Lothario) to carry the action without too much confusion. It did not always seem necessary, however, and the villainous action perpetrated by the evil slave-owner fizzled out at the end. Thankfully, Millicent’s insecurity did not manifest itself in some Big Misunderstanding, and she and Lyon were able to fall in love without too much drama.

The action and structure of Borrowed Dreams seemed more like a historical epic than a historical romance; although the romance was an integral part of the action, it was not the main focus. That diffusion of action can have its positives, but I found it distracting and the secondary story lines too simplistic. Lyon and Millicent have a realistic romance, however, and since Borrowed Dreams is the first in a planned trilogy, chances are good McGoldrick will show more of their story in later books.