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
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.
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