[.ca] In My Heart (ISBN 0060564474)

Magical and beautiful love story:
Lady Alexandra Marshal lost her husband after her autocratic father decided she had married beneath her station, annulled the marriage, and shipped him off to India. But for the young Irish soldier, Christopher Donally, he never forgot the woman that he'd fallen in love with all those years before. After a chance meeting they are thrown together again in Society as Sir Christopher has now returned to England a knighted hero. Not until a theft at the British museum places Lady Alexandra in danger does she come to him for help. I found this story magical and beautiful as I am reminded that we all have the power to change our fate if we have the courage to act. The hero was a true hero willing to talk to the heroine about the past and willing to protect her at all costs. I understand how Sir Christopher Donally received the HERO Knight in Shining Armor award from Romantic Times bookclub for April. After reading the review below, it's amazing how different people see the same story. I found this book to be a keeper and highly reccomend it, especially to people who are bored with same old same, old plot lines that seems to be on the shelves these days.

I wanted to like it, but the writing is terrible:
Melody Thomas declares herself a wordsmith and dedicates this book to her 2 "goddesses of grammar." She needs new goddesses. And a better dictionary and/or a better understanding of the English language in use. She misuses an untold number of words, but even that is not as bad as her pompous and often unintelligable phrasing. I don't remember the last time I rolled my eyes or muttered "good grief" so often while reading a novel. Ms. Thomas needs to have some of her conceit surgically removed and take some writing courses. Her characters & plot were milding interesting, and there were some good moments. Indeed, the potential was there. But both leads were often as exasperating as they were favorable--sometimes more so. I can't recall a single thoroughly likeable character...except maybe Rachel (more on her later). Ignoring any historical inaccuracies, I still found the story to be somewhat plodding and decidedly uneven. The unwitting accomplice was ridiculously obvious, the villain and his motives were cliches, and the ending was somehow unfulfilling. I struggled to finish the book, and often found myself skimming. The good points simply didn't make up for all the bad ones. This book sets up a story for Ryan & Rachel. Rachel is a very interesting character in this book, very strong and capable, but Ryan is a pompous jerk (more so than Christopher, this book's hero). But I don't know if I'll be able to endure Thomas' inferior & overblown writing style in order to attempt to read it, should it ever be published. I definitely won't buy it...or this one. The 2 stars is for the good points & the wasted potential. But I think I may be being generous with it.

Give me more, give me more:
This is one of the best books I've read this year and I've found a new author to fall in love with. You'll love Christopher and Lady Alexandra as they fight for their love and for a second chance to begin a life that had been stolen from them. Ms. Thomas captured the class distinction between the pair. The love scenes were sensual. The mystry worked and didn't take over the story. The book pulled at my emotions until the end. If you are looking for fluff, this is not the book to read. If you want to fall in love with two characters that will stay with you long after you put down the book then buy this book now. This is one of the best books I've read this year and has gone directly to my keeper shelf for me to read again and again and again. I just love it when I discover new authors. Thank you, thank you, thank you for a great read.

Ehh, OK, but not great:
This book is filled with anachronisms and some tenuous historical research, including the author's constantly getting the hero's title wrong (she keeps having other characters refer to him as Sir "Donally" instead of Sir Christopher, and also as just plain Mr. Donally). If I'm reading a historical romance novel, I like the research to be thorough & accurate. It just didn't ring true that Alexandra could have reached the position at the British Museum that she held, in Victorian England of 1865, even with her father's influence, and also that she would have a female secretary, AND male underlings working under her. That being said, the first part of the book moved along quickly and sensibly, and I liked the hero, who is a self-made man, and not full of himself but not a pushover, either. The heroine was interesting but not entirely believable, given the plot device set forth above...This book had its good moments and some flashes of good writing, but I kept thinking, while I was reading it, how much better it would have been if someone like Laura Kinsdale was writing it. The characters had a lot going for them, but the plot & its resolution just didn't jell into a really good read. So I can't really recommend it.

Descriptive, emotional, mystery, and second chance at love:
This is a second chance love story with a mystery subplot. I enjoy books with a mystery element and was pleased with the twist at the end of this book. Mostly this is a love story about second chances and learning to accept the things that can't be changed. The chemistry between Lady Alexandra and Sir Christopher burned the pages on every level for me. The love scene in the carriage was fun and had me laughing. I always wondered how two people could really pull off something like that in a carriage. The secondary characters were fun and I'm looking forward to reading their stories. My only complaint is that I felt like some of the ending was rushed. I enjoyed watching the relationship between Lady Alexandra and her father grow beyond the confines that had constricted her for so many years, and I was cheering as I watched her break free. I liked that her father wasn't all bad and that there was no black or white to that relationship. Her father did what he did because he believed that he was protecting his daughter. Sir Christopher Donally is one of the best heroes I have read in a long time. He embodied all the spirit of an Irishman who had risen through the ranks of society, and he had always loved Lady Alexandra, no matter what he tried to believe. He has sexy blue eyes, while his brothers have dark, Colin Farrel dark, dark, dark brown eyes. (Can't wait for their books) Overall, I would give this story a four and three quarters stars, because like I said, the ending felt somewhat rushed. But I enjoyed this book and would highly recommend it. It has a place among my many favorite books, and the author is one I'm going to watch for her next book.