I've read this book so many times my copy is starting to lose pages. I found it in a Ross store years ago for like a dollar, and I thought it was phenomenal. Far from being your typical bodice-ripping romance, this one is a swashbuckling action-adventure and its historical ties are very accurate! It deals with the period of history just before the war broke out between England and the U.S. in 1812, when international tensions were high. Napoleon was crushing Europe under his tiny boot and this novel is about how two American and two British spies manage to stop a dastardly plan to help him. Anemone Carstairs is the lovely young British spy raised by her father, a spy of international reknown. She's undercover with the Earl of Pelham, to find out whether or not secrets are being sold to France by the debt-ridden man. While she's solving her crime, she crosees paths with American spy Stephen Burke, who seeks to buy information from the Earl. But when the Earl is murdered and Stephen catches Anemone in the wrong place at the wrong time, her cover is blown and a dangerous game of cat-and-mouse one-upmanship follows. Anemone and Stephen join forces to rescue Stephen's childhood friend and fellow spy Johnny Tucker from the horrors of British impressment. But the romance budding between the British lass and the American hunk doesn't sit well with him, and three's a crowd. What follows is a very fast paced story of how they manage to juggle conflicting interests, romance and tricky spy work in time to save an innocent man's life and try to keep the fragile peace between their countries. This book is so awesome that I keep wondering if there's maybe a sequel, hopefully featuring Johnny Tucker finding the love of his life. The book is very well written and really doesn't deserve to be called "Moonlit Obsession" because the moonlight and obsessions have nothing to do with anything in the plot, and the title makes it seem like a tawdry, badly written romance from Harlequin and it's NOT. For one thing, it's from Wordsworth. :-) But for another, the cover has the typical bodice-ripping kissing scene (and it's badly drawn too) so I can only assume that the entire cover, title and all, was the product of the publishers. And it's a shame, because this book is as good as anything Nora Roberts ever wrote, and it deserves a respectable place beside all the good historical/spy/adventure/romance novels out there.
Romance Spy Mystery combo... what a find!
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 19 years ago
This was my very first romance I've read, and I was SOO impresed! It was exciting, it made you think, there were some fight scenes for the action lovers, and a few good plot twists!! English vs American spies, two fall in love, rescuing a childhood friend... I can't do this book justice, its soo good. I recommend it to everyone!! Even if you aren't the romance kind of lady, I know you won't be able to put this baby down!!
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