Miss Bree Mallory's mother's second husband was Edmund Mallory, owner of Challenge Coaching; her first husband had been the younger son of a viscount and the two families live very different lifestyles. Bree and her brother Piers run the coaching business now. When Bree meets Max Dysart, the Earl of Penrith, during a coaching race, there is a very strong instant attraction, but there's an impediment unknown to Bree: Max's wife ran off with another man and hasn't been heard of for years, so Max is not free to offer marriage, and though their feelings are mutual and very strong, he will not try to make her his mistress either. The feelings between Max and Bree are strong and credible, there's a lot of action and stagecoach stuff, and the characters are engaging (my favorite being Bree's lady companion, Rosa). A good read :)
Huge marks for sheer originality! The heroine was more independent than most, capable of driving her own coach. Talk about a unique way to start off a story--a carriage race with the heroine behind the "wheel". Add in that our intrepid hero had a certain part of his anatomy...ummm...(don't want to give away any spoilers)...adorned, shall we say? All in all, I really enjoyed this story!
