Somewhere back in my youth I remember having a favorite historical romance that I read and re-read. Now all I can remember is the picture on the cover and the plot device that brought the heroine and hero together for the first time. The cover was one of those eighties covers – sort of a cross between a real picture and one of those velvet paintings you see of sad, big-eyed kids. I remember that cover because of the big-eyed heroine and because it illustrated one of my favorite guilty pleasure plot points. If it’s done well, then no matter how many times I’ve read it, having the heroine hold the hero at gunpoint at their first meeting gets me every time (probably something terribly Freudian in that). In Dangerous Debra Dier has done it well. She makes a highly implausible situation both believable and intriguing; it’s a good jumping off point for a novel that is much of the same.

The elements that make up this Regency-set historical are pretty familiar to readers. Emma Wakefield is an intelligent spinster who’s taken care of her family for years. Part of her recent care includes accompanying her Aunt Marjorie and her young, beautiful cousin Charlotte to London with the goal of getting said cousin settled well in an advantageous marriage. Once there, her plans go awry. Charlotte disappears and Emma’s primary suspect is the Marquess of Andover. Determined to get her cousin back at any cost, Emma lures Andover to her home and pulls a gun on him.

Sounds a bit trite, I know. But then there’s that “done well” aspect. I believed that Emma was capable enough to carry out her plan and I believed Sebastian, an aristocrat ruled by logic, could be enticed by Emma into her trap. Even after she pulls the gun and locks him in a cellar they continued to act believably. And I continued believing when he escaped the cellar and made his way to her bedroom. Dier infuses each of these possibly ridiculous scenes with such subtle emotion that the reader can’t help but be drawn in. Emma is nervous but determined, and Sebastian is unwillingly drawn to a woman who is not what he’s been looking for. It works.

What also works, for the most part, is the kidnap plot that has brought Sebastian and Emma together. Dier’s handling of the story is dark, but it suits what’s actually happening to these people. Charlotte’s kidnappers are bad people and bad things could happen to her, or to Sebastian and Emma. That’s as it should be. Some authors can successfully incorporate a light tone with dark doings, many cannot, and Debra Dier wisely doesn’t even try. Dangerous is an apt title for this work that blends the darker inner life of her characters (particularly Sebastian’s) with the dark events they’re experiencing.

My great enjoyment notwithstanding, I did have a few qualms about some of the behaviors exhibited by her characters. Dier does a good job delving into and developing the emotional relationship between her hero and heroine. She doesn’t do quite as good a job with the emotions of some of the other characters, and she tops this with a sketchy ending that wasn’t as believable as other parts of the book. A primary supporting player in the book is Emma’s aunt (Charlotte’s mother). Her daughter has been kidnapped and yet she remains remarkably calm throughout. Her lack of urgency lessened some of the tension the reader should feel about the situation. And I can only guess that the author intends a sequel to explain the results of the kidnapping, since that certainly wasn’t the case here.

Dier’s deft handling of familiar elements and the emotional depth she creates in the relationship between Emma and Sebastian make Dangerous a stand-out in a crowded field. Considering this strong entry and the one I loved so much way back when, perhaps liking heroines who hold the hero at gunpoint won’t continue to be such a guilty pleasure for me. Well, not if all authors handle it as well as this one does anyway.