Captive is guaranteed to hold you in its thrall. The characters in this Regency-set historical are strongly written, from the leads through the third-tier characters. While written in the traditional mold, these characters and this story are anything but stale and stereotypical. The author’s talent brings everything to vivid life.

If you enjoy Guardian/Ward Romances, you will love Charlotte Edgerton and Lionel Morgan, Earl of Denbigh. If you enjoy beautiful, non-conventional American heroines and handsome, tortured, traditional British nobility, you will want to read about Charlie and her Lion. And, if you enjoy couples whose “souls cry out” for each other, you should read this book.

Captive is a family affair. Readers actually get two love stories for the price of one. Although the second story revolves around secondary characters, they are not given short-shrift. Their unusual love brings a wonderful texture and background to the love that develops between Charlie and her Lion.

Those secondary characters are Lion’s “crippled” sister Olivia and the Duke of Braddock. Rather than reveal the details of these relationships, I can only say that there is a great enmity between these men and neither imagined Olivia would ever be an object of love.

Again, the author’s ability to transform traditional character types and a traditional story-line into something unique is why this book is so special. She has toned down the harsh edges of the male characters and imbued the heroines with grace and inner strength. And, because she has written such strong and important secondary characters, there is something riveting on nearly every page.

This book is filled as well with humor. Charlie’s American attitudes constantly abrade Lion’s British stiff upper lip. His acceptance of her liberal views and casual attitudes is heartwarming and quite funny. When you get to the wedding and read who is sitting in the pews, you will definitely smile.

Captive is a wonderfully romantic tale that is perfect for any lover of romantic fiction. I will include it on my list of books to give first- time readers because it is traditional and not filled with extremes. But it is also a wonderful book for long-time readers – it is a lovely reminder of what romance is all about.