Lost in Your Arms [Hardcover]

Christina Dodd (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 2002

A Groom Who Can't Remember. Bride Who Wants Desperately To Forget.

Enid MacLean is finally living a peaceful life when she receivesword that an explosion has injured the husband she hoped she'd neverhave to see again. Reluctantly, she agrees to do her duty but,except for his distinctive green eyes, the man she nursesback to health is not the man she remembers.

And he remembers nothing. From the depths of his amnesia, he reaches out for the woman he believes is his wife, tempting her with ardent words and a reckless passion she finds herself unable to resist. And while Enid finds herself losing her heart to this achingly familiar stranger, she cannot help but wonder how her husband has become such a dangerous, seductive man . . . and what secrets he carries locked away in his lost memories.

Last time marriage cost her her happiness. This time love could cost her more.

--This text refers to the Mass Market Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Setting: London and Scotland, 1843

Sensuality: 8

Lovely and world-weary, Enid MacLean has no wish to set eyes on her ne'er-do-well husband again. Abandoned by him nine years earlier, she has supported herself as a nurse companion. When Mr. Throckmorton tells her that her long-absent husband is wounded, dying, and in need of her, she reluctantly travels to Throckmorton's estate where she finds a man whose face and body are badly wounded but whose eyes are the distinctive green and gold she remembers. Grimly, she sets about saving his life.

Stephen MacLean wakes and his body grows stronger, but his memory is nonexistent. He doesn't remember being married to Enid, yet the beautiful woman with the acerbic tongue challenges and enchants him. Enid is dismayed to find herself being seduced once again by Stephen. How can she desire the husband who treated her so shabbily? Meanwhile, Stephen's instinct warns him they're in danger, but it isn't until their lives are threatened and nearly lost that Throckmorton sends the couple north to Stephen's family estate, where the truth, finally revealed, is startling.

The English and Scottish backdrops are picture perfect for this latest installment in Christina Dodd's Distinguished Academy of Governesses series. With an interesting plot that combines the mysteries of amnesia and Russian spies, plus a lot of heat between the strong hero and heroine, Lost in Your Arms is historical romance at its best. --Lois Faye Dyer --This text refers to the Mass Market Paperback edition.

From Publishers Weekly

Fraught with overwrought characters and contrived plot twists, the fifth entry in Dodd's early Victorian-era Governess Bride series picks up where the previous novel, In My Wildest Dreams, left off. Unlike the other members of the Distinguished Academy of Governesses, Enid MacLean is neither single nor a governess. She's a strong-minded nurse who was abandoned nine years ago by her ne'er-do-well husband, Stephen, after only three months of marriage. Now her delinquent husband is back, badly wounded by an explosion in the Crimea and in need of her healing touch. Enid reluctantly returns to find him scarred, suffering from amnesia and in peril from a Russian spy. Unfazed by Stephen's condition, Enid promptly regales him with stories of his past sins, never realizing that the man who both angers and entices her may not be her husband. The novel jumps abruptly from one angst-ridden confrontation to another, rushing toward a staged, sensational conclusion that holds more sparks than substance. Although the romantic tension between Dodd's hero and heroine will pull readers onward inexorably, the espionage subplot lends little credibility or depth to this trite tale. (Mar. 5)Forecast: Dodd's Governess Bride series has a devout following, but this weak entry may leave readers wondering if the author has lost her edge. Although negative word-of-mouth may deter some fans from picking up Dodd's latest, those who do will be placated by the inclusion of the hero and heroine from her previous book.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Mass Market Paperback edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover
• Publisher: San Val (March 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1417710616
• ISBN-13: 978-1417710614
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (47 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #11,158,210 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Chat with Christina via Facebook and Twitter, and even better, join her mailing list to have her news delivered right to your inbox! http://christinadodd.com/lists/?p=subscribe

Readers become writers, and Christina Dodd has always been a reader. She reads everything, but because she loves humor, she likes romance best.

A woman wants things like world peace, a clean house, and a deep and meaningful relationship based on mutual understanding and love. A man wants things like a Craftsman router with attachments, undisputed control of the TV remote, and a red Corvette which will miraculously make his bald spot disappear. So when Christina's first daughter was born, she told her husband she was going to quit work and write a book. It was a good time to start a new career, because how much trouble could one little infant be?

Ha! It took ten years, two children and three completed manuscripts before her first novel, CANDLE IN THE WINDOW, was published. In the twenty-two years since, her novels have been translated into 25 languages, won Romance Writers of America's prestigious Golden Heart and RITA Awards and been called the year's best by Library Journal. Christina Dodd herself has been a clue in the Los Angeles Times crossword puzzle (11/18/05, # 13 Down: Romance Novelist named Christina.) Publishers Weekly praises her style that 'showcases Dodd's easy, addictive charm and steamy storytelling.'

Christina's 2011 releases include TAKEN BY THE PRINCE, #9 in the Governess Brides series, and in the tradition of Nora Roberts, a new romantic suspense series starting with SECRETS OF BELLA TERRA and REVENGE AT BELLA TERRA.

Christina Dodd is married to a man with all his hair and no Corvette, but many Craftsman tools.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very, very good, March 12, 2002

By 

susu_22 (American Fork, UT United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Lost in Your Arms (Governess Bride, Book 5) (Mass Market Paperback)

I am a fan of Christina Dodd, so my review is probably a little biased.

In this story, Enid is a nurse who cares for the elderly. She is called from the home of a woman she cares deeply for, to unwillingly care for her estranged husband. She remembers Stephen as a reckless gambler who abandoned her, leaving her to pay his debts by working as a nurse. As she puts it, she was only "this" close from being in the workhouse. Over a period of 9 years, her resentment has grown. She now only wants a plot of land, so she can tend a garden and have a sense of stability and familiarity in her life.

She does not recognize Stephen, since his injuries leave his face and body bandaged and scarred. She does remember his eyes and works on bringing him back from the brink of death. When he finally awakens, he has lost his memory and does not remember anything about his past, including his wife.

Throughout the book, Enid slowly reveals why she has resented him so many years. It seems as though Stephen has changed. His physical nearness and teasing affects Enid, as well as his new devotion to her. Is he really the same person she married?

Again, I really liked this book. Enid was a strong character, who was not afraid to clean up and tend to her patient and his room. Unlike most novels, where a servant or maid did the cleaning up and watching over a patient. She was always quick to come up with a witty response to Stephen, rather than let him dictate to her.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Even better than her previous books, August 15, 2002

By 

Shamim Adam (Singapore) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Lost in Your Arms (Governess Bride, Book 5) (Mass Market Paperback)

I have to admit that like some other readers, I too was surprised at how good this book was. I had enjoyed Christina Dodd's In My Wildest Dreams immensely and was so pleasantly surprised that Lost In Your Arms was just as enjoyable.

My favorite books are the type that just make the heart ache when reading about the misery the characters sometimes experience because of various reasons. Christina Dodd does so extremely well in making us feel for her characters. Others have written about the plot so I won't add to their excellent accounts but just to say that Enid and Stephen are two of the most compelling characters I've had the opportunity to experience.

Some have mentioned the similarity to Linda Howard's White Lies. With no disrespect to Linda Howard who is one of my favorite authors, White Lies pales in comparison to Lost in Your Arms. I cannot remember reading an `amnesia' story which I've enjoyed more than this.

This is a definite keeper! My only regret is that I did not read the amazingly wonderful book sooner.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Best in the Lot!!!!, February 15, 2006

By 

Avid-Reader (NYC, NY USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Lost in Your Arms (Governess Bride, Book 5) (Mass Market Paperback)

I read Publisher's Weekly review on this book, and they called it a weak entry. Did we read the same book? Lost in Your Arms is one of the best Christine Dodd books I've read. Infact this book made me her fan. I read this one first not realizing it was a series, I hope the rest of them are this good!

Enid Seymore was no stranger to life's hardships, the orphaned bastard child of a nobleman, thought luck was finally in her favor when she met and married the handsome, and charming Stephen Maclean, but soon realized that this was no fairy tale and Stephen was far from the knight in shining armor she thought he was. When her husband cast her off after 3 months of marriage, and left her with all his debts, Enid was forced to find work as an assistant to a village doctor. Now a nurse companion 9 years later, Enid recieves a message that her no good husband is badly injured and she is needed to nurse him back to health. The last thing Enid wanted was to meet Stephen again, but she dutifully nurses him back from the brink off death, only to realize that he has amnesia and can't remember her at all. Besides his familiar green eyes, this man is unlike the spoiled, rotten, and selfish man she married 9 years ago.

Maclean was sure he would have remembered having Enid as a wife, who would forget having a beautiful and saucey wife sleeping next to him at night. But yet for the life of him he couldn't remember a thing about her or of the life she claimed he lived. He didn't gamble as she claimed he loved to do, and he would never cast off his wife as she said he did. All he knows is that whatever secrets are locked away in his memory, someone is trying to kill him to make sure they are never revealed...

Lost In Your Arms, is a beautiful love story that I have read over and over again, once you start you can't put it down until your finished!