I enjoyed this book a great deal more than I enjoyed this author’s previous release, Just One Kiss. This time around, Samantha James has written a more subtle romance. Instead of offering up an alpha hero who didn’t show the heroine any reason why she ought to love him, she offers up an alpha hero I could love. Instead of a nearly-sniveling heroine, she offers up a heroine who certainly has plenty to snivel about, but doesn’t – well, not always.

Every Wish Fulfilled tells the tale of Damien, Earl of Treymane, who is searching for his brother’s killer. The killer? Most likely the birth father of Lady Heather Duval, who has been raised by loving adoptive parents since she was a child. Though the Lady is beautiful, she is lame, and at the age of 25, on the shelf.

Damien hides his identity to snoop around and is hired as estate manager by Heather. His assumption that she is a spoiled young miss is wrong, as is her assumption that he could never find her attractive. Their chemistry is wondrous and readers who delight in well-written love scenes are in for a treat!

As a reader who most enjoys romances where the hero and heroine are together for most of the book, I was not disappointed. By allowing these characters to be together, the author treats us to the progression of their relationship analogous to a couple meeting at the ball and ending up on the balcony in the moonlight hours later. We are treated to their meeting, their coming together, their moving apart, and finally, their coming together intimately. Although I don’t think members of the ton engaged in dirty dancing in 1825, the author has written exquisite kisses, caresses, and love scenes for Damien and Heather. I found this very much an improvement over the love scenes in Just One Kiss, where the hero engaged in many scenes of sexual dominance over the heroine, and I ended up not liking either of the main characters terribly well.

In Every Wish Fulfilled, Damien and Heather are not cardboard cut-outs but are instead written as three-dimensional characters. As Damien and Heather discover the truth about the death of his brother and her birth father’s identity, they grow closer and closer and fall deeply, madly, in love.

Oh, there are the usual mis-assumptions and betrayals (or not) that serve to keep them from admitting their true feelings. Although these devices are not new, they did not feel cliched or hackneyed. Indeed, the author engaged this reviewer so much that I found myself keenly anticipating the moment when Damien would admit the love he felt for Heather.

There is a caveat to this book that must be mentioned, however; I’m a bit of a crank lately, and find historical implausibilities tougher to deal with. And this book offers up two such implausible instances that rubbed me the wrong way.

During one scene nearly midway through the book, Heather is summoned to act as midwife to a villager. Granted Heather is a spinster, but I find it dubious at best that the virginal ward of an Earl in this time in history would be called upon or allowed to act as midwife.

There is another, more major bit of dubious writing near the end of this tale. Heather is rendered unconscious for nearly two weeks due to a blow to the head. Even though she is pregnant, both she and the baby she carries survive. When she awakens, she is back on her feet within a day. I find it doubtful that in 1825, before the use of I.V.’s (let alone life-support machinery), a person could survive for that length of time and be revived as completely healthy.

Those implausibilities aside, I can and do offer recommend Every Wish Fulfilled to readers who enjoy well-written characters with a twist, and those who are looking for strong chemistry. Samantha James has written the type of hero in this book most readers could fall in love with as easily as does Heather.