With this Ring was better than expected – it is not watered down Amanda Quick. It is simply an evolution in the writing style of the Jayne Ann Krentz, who writes historical romance under the pseudonym of Amanda Quick. After having read ten Quick romances and another half dozen JAK’s, I can tell when she’s on her game and when she isn’t. She’s on her game here, but she’s changed the rules somewhat. I’m willing to play her way this time because she’s made it fun, but if she changes the rules much more, we simply won’t be playing the same game anymore.

The emphasis here is on a mystery, but for me, the mystery simply provided a reason for our lovers to be together for nearly the entire book. With this author’s ability to write interplay for her heroes and heroines that sparkles with wit and good humor and is at the same time loving and caring, this togetherness is a good thing, a very good thing. Although the love scenes are scanty, each kiss and caress worked wonderfully for me. While the author did heat my blood, I felt cheated by the brevity and scarcity of intimate moments compared to the luscious love scenes she used to write. And, while the mystery did bring these two together and keep them together, I found that by the time they solved the mystery, my interest in it had very nearly passed.

What likely will bother many readers is the seeming lack of character study. Both lead characters were assumed to have had once-in-a-lifetime marriages in their pasts which were, in actuality, dismal. These failures in love led each to believe any chance at romantic love was behind them. Romance readers are used to more discussion between characters about their pasts, about their problems, and are used to more internal dialogue as well. Quick states it once and gets on with it; both Beatrice Poole and Leo Drake simply live as though their pasts happened. The character study is there – it’s just unstated. and seen through actions rather than discussions.

With this Ring is set in the Regency and uses many themes we’ve seen before in Amanda Quick romances. There’s the not-whom-she-seems-to-be heroine – in this instance, Beatrice Poole, a widowed authoress who writes gothic novels under an assumed name. She also rescues young women from prostitution by teaching them French and passing them off as French servants to the unwitting and snobbish ton. There’s the hero-with-a-reputation Leo Drake, Earl of Monkcrest aka The Mad Monk who is an authority on obscure antiquities. When not secreted on his country estate, he and his wolfhound dispel of highwaymen for sport. There is the discussion of metaphysical unity and the immediate attraction between two strong personalities who do not quite fit into Society. The author even includes a reference to Zamaria, a lost civilization from a previous book, to let the clever reader know many have criticized her in the past for recycling her own work. I found myself engaged by the reference. I also found Beatrice’s convoluted logic about needing to protect her reputation not for herself but as the author of novels of “unseemly darker passions” intriguing in what it said about Society at the time.

Beatrice Poole needs to discover the Forbidden Rings of Aphrodite to finance her cousin’s dowry. Her uncle Reggie, who died in a brothel named The House of the Rod, had indicated before his death that he had this legendary treasure in his possession. While Beatrice has discovered he was poisoned, she has not found the treasure. Surely noted antiquities scholar Leo Drake can explain the history of the treasure and point her in the right direction. When Beatrice pushes her way into his country estate practically in the middle of the night, the Mad Monk is intrigued. He is more intrigued by her beauty and intelligence and logic than he’d admit, but after he gives her the information she seeks, he finds a way to keep her around so that she won’t start an investigation without him. She thinks he’s only after the treasure when he’s already started to discover she’s a treasure in her own right.

While the unseemly locales and unsavory characters they meet up with in the course of their investigation is fun, it got old before it should have. A bit less mystery and a bit more lovemaking would have livened things up, but I disagree with those who say this is not a romance. Loving and caring can be shown in other ways than soft words and silky caresses – not that there’s anything wrong with that.

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