The Chase is a hard book to describe. The heroine was single-minded until about halfway, at which point she started showing depth. And while “heat” isn’t necessary for me to enjoy a book, this one certainly improved, also about halfway through, when it got nice and steamy. Both of these changes were to the better, but they weren’t enough to carry a story that just had too much happening.

As a child, Blake of Sherwell was betrothed to the daughter of his father’s friend. The fathers had a falling out, and for twenty years no one has mentioned that betrothal. Blake grew up so stunningly handsome, people call him “Angel” and whisper that he could charm St. Agnes herself out of her knickers. He likes his life in London, surrounded by admiring women and making big money commanding what sounds like a small private army for hire. He’s rich, he’s gorgeous (and yes, he is highly aware of it), and he’s single. Life is good. But then his betrothed’s family starts pressing the king to either enforce the marriage contract or break it, and Blake is ordered to marry his bride at once. Reluctantly, under the watchful eye of the king’s man and accompanied by a bishop, Blake sets off for Scotland to find her.

Seonaid Dunbar would just as soon he didn’t. Her father raised her pretty much the same way he raised his son, to fight and be strong. Seonaid is tall and athletic and this suits her; she’d much rather swing a sword than sew. Her family hopes the king will just dissolve the marriage contract. When Blake’s imminent arrival proves otherwise, she runs off to a local nunnery. It’s not because she would like to be a nun – she wouldn’t, really – but she wants to teach Blake a lesson for leaving her waiting for so long. At the abbey, she and her cousin Aeldra meet an Englishwoman, Lady Helen, seeking sanctuary from her husband, who is plotting to kill her. Seonaid and Aeldra decide they’ll escort Helen safely home to her father in England, coincidentally avoiding Blake just a wee bit longer.

Blake and his entourage catch up to them as they are leaving, though, and thus begins the chase. Seonaid and her companions run, Blake and his retinue chase. She runs again, he chases again. Repeat a few more times. Every time he catches her, he scolds her, allows her a great deal of freedom, and then is shocked when she runs off again.

I got a bad feeling on page 35, when the author herself labels Seonaid feisty. The next 150 pages seemed to confirm it, and it was a bit of a struggle to stick with all the chasing and spunky escapes. But then a funny thing happened; Seonaid began to grow on me. Once she was caught for good, she turned reasonable in her feistiness. She became much more believable as the story progressed. She didn’t change, revealing hidden feminine talents the second she put on a dress. She was who she was, a warrior – as blunt and brave as any man but with a woman’s feelings. Part of what made Blake appealing was that he loved her that way, even though she was nothing like what he had anticipated or even thought he wanted.

If that had been most of the plot, this could have been a pretty decent story. However, there was more, lots more. There are plots and subplots at every turn, and some of them didn’t seem to exist for any enduring reason. One major subplot simply disappears at some point while another is resolved with a few sentences at the end. The ending itself was actually a series of endings, as one after another plot threads were tied off, quickly and easily, as if all the various people trying to kill Seonaid, Blake, or one of their family or friends just ran out of steam and gave up.

What with all the running and chasing and fending off multiple enemies, the romance between Seonaid and Blake is almost implied. Although their marriage is quite steamy, there’s very little sexual tension leading up to it. Aside from sex, and respect for each other’s fighting skills, the rest of their relationship is only referred to in passing, as if the reader must just assume they were getting to know each other and falling in love in private. They’ll refer to kind, tender, endearing things the other has done, but these things are never shown. It only made me more annoyed with all the enemies cluttering up the book.

Although I did like the heroine, and the arranged marriage plot is one of my favorites, there was too much intrigue and too many battles (although the one fought in the nude was rather original). The frustrating parts counterbalanced the rewarding parts, which left the whole book just ordinary.