I have been looking forward to this story ever since I closed the cover on The Duke last year. Of course it’s tough for a book to live up to those heady expectations. Fortunately I was not disappointed by Lord of Fire, though there was a brief moment of panic at the beginning because of surface similarities to Mary Jo Putney’s Dancing On the Wind. Both books have heroes named Lucien, nicknamed Lucifer, who are spies for the crown during the Peninsular Wars, and are involved with a group trying to relive the heady days of the Hellfire club. Fortunately, all similarities end there.

Lord Lucien Knight feels that he has always lived in the shadow of his twin, Colonel Lord Damien Knight. Despite that and the fact that he’s currently estranged from his twin, Lucien feels he must protect Damien from an ill-chosen bride, so he takes the woman, Caro, as his mistress. Caro is at his country estate, Revell Court, when her sister-in-law arrives to let her know that her son has come down with chicken pox. The sister-in-law Alice Montague, a.k.a. Goody-Two-Shoes, feels that it is time for Caro to do her duty as a mother and intends to drag her home. Instead, she falls into Lucien’s clutches.

Lucien is attracted to the straight-laced Alice and puts her to a test: what is more important, her comfort or her nephew’s? Alice must choose whether or not she or Caro will leave Revell Court and return to the child. Alice makes the selfless choice and sends Caro home to her son. Lucien lets it be known that he wants Alice in his bed, but Alice isn’t called Goody-Two-Shoes for nothing and resists his lecherous advances. But finds it harder to fight the lonely soul that Lucien reveals as his true self.

While this is going on, there is the mystery of a plot being formulated by an evil French spy, Claude Bardou, hired by the Americans to make mischief for the British. Lucien has personal reasons for wanting Bardou dead, and soon is forced to choose between the woman he loves and the man he hates.

Lucien should come across as a typical tortured hero, but Foley gives him enough charm that he’s never dark. Instead, Lucien is more like a lost little boy looking for love and acceptance. Unfortunately the man he’s become has a heavy burden of duty to King and country, which comes before personal happiness.

Alice is a good match for him. Unlike most virtuous heroines, there’s no morning-after-guilt for being with Lucien. Alice is comfortable with her sexuality, but it’s the emotional release and the fact Lucien doesn’t expect her to be anyone but who she is that she finds most attractive about him.

Refreshingly, there are no big misunderstandings between these two, despite all the secrets Lucien’s job requires he keep. Yes, there were arguments and both would stomp off to separate corners like temperamental children at times, but these scenes were never dragged out and always rang true to their characterization. Also, whenever a romance cliché showed up on the horizon, Foley never went for the obvious conclusion. When a convenient rain storm blows up, the protagonists do not retire to an opportune cottage. Foley lets them get wet.

I really enjoyed this book and its fast pace made it nearly impossible to put down. While the overtly romantic ending of The Duke nudged it into the DIK zone, the overabundance of action at the end of Lord of Fire does the exact opposite and pulls it down just a bit. But it definitely gets 2002 off to a roaring start for romance readers and I’m grateful I don’t have to wait longer than a month for its follow-up, Lord of Ice, about Lucien’s twin Damien.