The best thing about this book is the title – it does so much of the summarizing for me. The heroine is a virgin, the hero is vengeful. Got it? Review over. That was easy. The title actually refers to a book written by a deceased relative of the hero, but it applies to the principal characters also.

Why is Curt Powers vengeful? He’s a battered and bitter SEAL, and the illegitimate child of a wealthy and powerful family. He never knew his father and the only thing he has to show for his legacy is a bunch of old papers and journals. When the story opens, he doesn’t even have those: he was unable to keep up on his storage fees while on a mission in Costa Rica, so they were auctioned off to the heroine, Lily Riley.

Why is Lily a virgin? It would seem that she has trust issues. She had a rough upbringing with a neglectful, addicted mother. Lily’s had to depend to herself, and thanks to her smarts and determination she is a successful author of suspense novels. She bought Curt’s papers on impulse and discovers she is drawn to the journals of Bess Powers, one of Curt’s ancestors. Lily feels compelled to piece Bess’s story together.

Curt finds Lily and makes a determined effort to get his things back. Lily is just as determined to hold onto them. Because a stalker has broken into Lily’s home and is calling her, Curt decides the solution to both their problems is for her to come to Powers Point and stay in his house. She’ll be safe, they can go through the papers together, and eventually decide how to divvy them up.

It is pretty hard to believe that street-smart Lily, given her current trouble, would readily agree to go off with a man she has just met. Granted, Curt is sexy as hell with all those scars and scratches, but he is also more thickheaded than he needs to be. Both characters are completely at the mercy of the plot, which keeps them from genuinely connecting. Instead, they keep each other at arm’s length and do a lot of needless glowering until enough pages have been turned for them to fall into each other’s arms. Incidentally, the stalker storyline is shoved way back on the burner, reemerging at the end almost as comic relief.

This is my first Dixie Browning and a longtime fan of hers tells me it’s not up to the standards of her earlier work. There are a few choice moments in The Virgin And The Vengeful Groom that intrigued me enough that I’ll check back with the author in the future. The one love scene, for example, is a darn fine one. If the heroine has to be a virgin I’d rather she have moxie like Lily, instead of trembling in the hero’s arms. Devoted followers of Browning will probably want to give this a whirl, but I wouldn’t recommend it as an introduction.