When talking about romance novels, the term “hero” is pretty much universally used to refer to the male lead character. It’s rare, though, that I see it used within the novels themselves, probably because “hero” is a term with a lot of different connotations, most of which are sort of weird for a woman to use when describing a potetial husband. Eliza spent so much time talking about “finding her hero,” I almost expected her to break out into Bonnie Tyler’s song.

In Pursuit of Eliza Cynster is the seventeenth Cynster novel, and second of a trilogy featuring three particular Cynster sisters that are the center of a kidnapping plot. For unclear reasons, an anonymous Highland laird needs a Cynster girl to be his bride, and has resorted to abduction to do it. His first victim, Heather, was rescued (in Viscount Beckenridge to the Rescue), so he moved on to the second, Eliza. She is taken by a more villainous criminal-for-hire than her sister, and by chance a distant acquaintance witnesses her one attempt for help. Jeremy Carling is a scholar, usually absentminded and more focused on heiroglyphics than the people around him, but he happens to recognize Eliza and knew some of the story about her sister’s kidnapping attempt, so he gets some of his scholar friends and stages a rescue. However, his perfect planning is not so perfect after all, and what is supposed to be a one-day trek through Scotland turns into a days-long cat-and-mouse chase.

Jeremy and Eliza had very little chemistry together, despite the relative hotness of the love scenes. His attraction to her felt forced, while her attraction to him seemed to stem from expectation of a fated eventuality rather than true desire for him. Stephanie Laurens has a writing quirk that is a big pet peeve of mine and it gets worse during the love scenes: Sentence fragments. These particular scenes are so choppy, most of the time I read them with irritation rather than interest.

The entire book was imbued with a strange combination of fatalism and uncertainty. Both assume that their trek will result in marriage, but never talk about it and when they do finally make love, it is more experimentation of a potential future together, rather than a spontaneous expression of their feelings. There are just so many assumptions about their mutual future, yet it never actually came up in real conversation until the very end of the book.

Many of these assumptions, both about their relationship and their situation in general, were based on what happened to Eliza’s older sister Heather. It came up often, and felt repetitive even though I didn’t even read Viscount Beckenridge. I can’t say whether or not there are differences between the two books, but from how often the two plotlines are compared, it seems like much of In Pursuit was a rehash of the previous book’s events.

If there is a strength to the novel, it is that both Jeremy and Eliza grow in this book, and find aspects of their characters that they didn’t think existed. And, as one notes, it is these changed selves that fit together. Despite their lack of chemistry, they do make an otherwise good couple.

However, the rest of the novel ranged from lackluster to annoying to boring. There is a set-up for the third novel, out in February, and I have a feeling the male lead will be the mysterious laird, whom the author takes great care to portray as a man stuck in difficult circumstances rather than as a villain. I am a little bit intrigued about how that will come about, but given my issues with this book, I doubt I will actually bother to read the sequel.