Pink Heart Reviews
One Night of Passion
Elizabeth Boyle
Avon, 2002, 377 pages
ISBN#0-380-82089-7
Historical Romance, circa 1799
England
$5.99 (US) $ 7.99 CDN
Reviewed by Amanda
August 2004
One Night of Passion is a sort of Cinderella story with an espionage twist. Georgie Escott and her younger sister Kit are orphans. A man that her father was about to expose as an English traitor killed their mother and father when they were much younger. Georgie was the only witness to the crime and has carried the secret with her ever since. The woman they were sent to live with after they were orphaned has died, and now they are living in their greedy uncle's home. Georgie has just discovered that her uncle has promised her to be married to a man four times her age and stands to receive an impressive amount of money for the arrangement. When confronted about this horrible arrangement, Georgie's aunt and uncle maintain that it was all approved by her legal guardian, a man she has never heard of before now, a man name Lord Danvers. Not only is she to be married, but also her elderly husband-to-be expects her to be examined beforehand to be sure her virginity is intact. It is then that Georgie decides that losing her virginity to any random rake is the answer to avoiding this horrible marriage.
With the help of her younger sister, Georgie slips out of the house and heads off to a Cyprian ball, a place where she is guaranteed to find someone to spoil her and make her unmarriable. Lord Colin Danvers is also on his way to the same ball, after being discharged from the Navy and dumped by his fiancé. He is in the middle of a scandal that he must endure to keep people from finding out about the real work he does to protect his country. It is on this night that he ends up bumping into Georgie, and later saving her from a group of rowdy men. Formal introductions are never made, and she manages to persuade him to give her the one night of passion that she needs. She leaves in the morning before he can wake up, and though he searches for her in the following days, he is unable to find her before he has to set sail.
The book skips ahead to one year later, and Georgie and Kit are on the run. Once it was discovered that Georgie was no longer a virgin, it was decided that Kit would be the one to marry Lord Harris. Taking all the money they had and using fake names, Georgie and Kit fled their home. They are hiding out in Italy, until one night their village is attacked. Following one of the other fleeing hotel guests, they discover a ship is waiting for him, and force him to take them along. When they board the ship, Georgia discovers the Captain is none other than Colin, the man she left behind. It isn't long until Georgie discovers whom Colin really is, the ship is taken over by the enemy, and the only way to save the lives of those on board is for Georgie to play the traitor. Each of them lacks trust for the other, but can't fight the attraction they feel. And when Georgie comes face to face with the man who killed her parents, she knows they are in grave danger.
I really enjoyed reading this book. At times, I grew a little frustrated with the characters, particularly when they were being overly stubborn and secretive, but I liked them nonetheless. Elizabeth Boyle adds a lot of wonderful humor to her books, which sets them apart from other historicals in my mind. While this isn't my favorite Elizabeth Boyle book, she still remains one of my favorite authors and One Night of Passion is a good read, if not an overly memorable love story.
