RAPTURE BECOMES HER by Shirlee Busbee

PUBLISHER: Zebra, June 28, 2011
SETTING: England, 1790s
GENRE: Historical romance
HEROINE: Emily Townsend, 26
HERO: Barnaby Joslyn
GRADE: B

SYNOPSIS: To save her village and what's left of her family fortune from her wastrel cousin, gently bred Emily Townsend secretly leads a ring of smugglers. With the king's forces and deadly rivals closing in, she has but one last dangerous shipment to acquire. But when her men rescue an injured stranger from the sea one stormy night, Emily faces her most formidable - and tempting - adversary ever... Barnaby, the new Viscount Joslyn, is determined to uncover who tried to kill him the moment he set foot in England. But proving to the spirited Miss Townsend that he can also be trusted with her deepest secrets is a challenge as intriguing as eluding danger. Now Barnaby and Emily's boldest gambit rests on unthinkable risk- and surrendering to an irresistible love...

MY THOUGHTS: I enjoyed this but it didn't have much romance in it. I liked the suspense of finding out who was trying to harm the hero, an American named Barnaby. He's from Virginia and owns a plantation. All the secondary characters were likeable, even the villains. I do like villains, even in romances. I do think there were a few too many secondary characters, and they were there from the beginning. It can get confusing for me to have to learn so many names right off the bat. The synopsis makes the book sound deeper than it really is.

I received this book from the publisher in 2011 in exchange for an honest review.