Never a Gentleman [Mass Market Paperback]

Diccan is an undercover spy for the British Government. He is on the trail of a group of anarchists called the lions whose aim is the downfall of the government.

Diccan wakes up to find he is in bed with Grace, somehow he was naked and in bed with her in her room, at an inn. Of course he like her has been drugged and tricked into this. Having now compromised her he has to marry her. But he is threatened that he must not treat her well or she will be hurt!

This is a first read for me by this author, an experience I do not think I shall be repeating. Although the writing is polished and accomplished. The plot was thin and not made believeable at all. The characters were not sympathetic and lacked depth. Diccan was an arrogant arse, he has a mistress that he is having sex with as part of his investigation. He hates this because he doesn't really want to hurt Grace. But he is at a loss to explain to her that its just sex, not making love, seeing as the reader is witness along with Grace to him having sex with his mistress. He seemed really reluctant, yeah right, just like I would hate to win the lottery. As for Grace she needed to grow a backbone. She simpered and sighed every time Diccan was near. Diccan is a notorious rake, while Grace is tall thin and horse faced, something the author felt the need to constantly emphasise. My only positive is that I picked this up at my local charity shop for pennies.

Fully characterised heroine and hero, a deft plot with twists and fast pacing, great emotional tension as the relationship progresses, yes this book has it all.

First off, the book starts with a bang, with the hero and heroine in bed, in the most intimate beginning you'll ever see in a historical romance. This isn't your mama's regency, no it has scenes that as shocking as they are fit both the plot and the story the author tells. I loved that the heroine is described as plain throughout, and that the hero at first thinks how unattractive she is. It makes the hero's change of heart even more romantic when he learns to see past her appearance. Not only that but the heroine is a very direct woman, and her own remarkable character. At one point it was difficult to understand her reactions, but the author did a good enough job of describing the ingrained sense of duty, of putting herself last, that it did make sense in her own perspective. On the other hand, the hero is much more of a man who dissimulates his true thoughts, who acts one way but thinks another way, but uses appearances to further his ends. This leads to a big part of the emotional conflict, which is all the better because it is not simply rooted in the plot, but also in how both character react to events.

I have heard once that a good author keeps thinking of awful things to happen to their heroes that they need to overcome. In this case Dreyer finds a great deal to put her heroine through, including a rather shocking scene that I would not have believed any romance editor would have the guts to print. It lends a gritty sense of "reality" to the spy intrigue that is seldom reached in other books where the plot just happens not to force the heroes to do unpalatable things. Even after that, Dreyer keeps ratcheting up the tension so much you want to throw the book away, and yet can't because you're captivated and too held up in the heroine's plight. Thankfully, it just makes the outcome sweeter.

Plotwise, there are a few red herrings in the beginning, (including one attack that later doesn't really seem to have had a purpose, it would have been very neat had it been revealed to have been linked to the plot) and a couple of rabbits pop out of Dreyer's hat around mid-half of the book, and the plot's denouement suffers a little from the fact that some of the twists dilute the plot's progression to the end. But other than that, this book is an engrossing, fall down asleep while reading page-turner.