After Alcyone has failed to find a husband, due to her forward thinking and lack of social graces, she agrees to marry a Western European baron, sight unseen. Unbeknownst to Alcy, the man she marries is not the baron, but is actually a Rumanian spy. After weighing her options, she decides to honor her marriage to Dumitru.

While things are moving smoothly in her marriage, she finds out that Dumitru's real reason for marrying her was for her dowry, which he has plotted to take from her control for his own plans. To stop his scheme, Alcy decides to run away, withdraw her dowry money, and strike out on her own. However, her hasty decisions see both of them held captive and they become pawns between political powers in a deprived Western Europe.

The story follows Alcy's and Dumitru's attempts at escape, as well as the progression of their relationship as they move from distrust to loyalty as they face the uncertainty of their future.

The story line of this book became a bit hard to follow at times, with the author's description of the political atmosphere and the background of Dumitru's occupation as a spy. It seemed as though the author tried to fit too much information and plot movement into too few pages, which left the character development lacking. With so much action and intrigue, I was not able to fully connect with, and understand the characters. Additionally, so much of the plot had centered on the couple traveling back and forth across Europe during their captivity that the speed of the book slowed down and became a bit monotonous. I was also let down with the ending. With such a buildup to the climax, it seemed that the author had tired of writing the story and decided to just tie up the loose ends and get it over with. To put it plainly, I felt a bit cheated and was left hanging without that warm, fuzzy feeling at the end.

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Publisher: Signet Eclipse (July 5, 2006)
ISBN: 0451218973
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