Published by Zebra, 2011
First He Drove Her Mad
In what feels like a moment, Beatrice Edmund goes from being a proper lady cooped up in a stuffy Scottish castle to traveling miles from anything she's ever known, in the midst of the wildest adventure of her life. And at the center of that adventure is the most infuriating, puzzling scoundrel on Earth. She cannot take her eyes off him.
Then He Drove Her Wild
Colin Fitch cannot deny he's drawn to Beatrice--but lust is all he could possibly feel for the sharp-tongued minx. Still, if there's a chance she can help him stop the madman he pursues, he must withstand her obvious disapproval. Yet withstanding the longing he feels for her is growing more troublesome by the second...And Colin has never been terribly good at staying out of trouble... (Summary from Goodreads.com)
I downloaded this title for free from Amazon in 2011 and finally got around to reading it. I am so glad I did! This was such a fun book...although there were times I could definitely tell it was part of a series and I didn't have the whole back story. Beatrice has lived in a Scottish castle with her grandmother for years with no friends, feeling like an outcast, never stepping a toe out of line. Now she is in India with her cousin Leo and his wife, Ella and Ella's cousin Colin. Colin could not be more different from Beatrice. He's an American who thrives on adventure and can't quite figure out why Leo would want his stuffy cousin along on this one.
There are some paranormal elements to this book that I thoroughly enjoyed even when I did not thoroughly understand who exactly could do what. I do know that Colin has the ability to heal the sick and injured although it drains him physically and mentally to do so. Ella seemed to have an affinity for animals and Leo and Beatrice's blood is needed to help in the finding of statues that have something to do with the future of the world. Even with some lingering questions in my mind, I zipped through this book, laughing out loud along the way.
Colin is a fabulous character and parts of this book definitely reminded me (at least in spirit) of Loretta Chase's Mr. Impossible. Beatrice and Colin find themselves attracted to each other for reasons they can neither name nor comprehend but as they spend more time together and see new facets of each others' personalities mutual respect is established. That is not to say that there are not still times when one would have cheerfully throttled the other (and in fact, Beatrice firmly put Colin in his place at one point rather than acting like a wounded-woe-is-me-he-done-me-wrong victim).
This is definitely a road-trip book as Beatrice and Colin travel (and at times are chased) all over India in search of temples and hidden statues. I enjoyed the setting as it is not one I have read a lot of. There was also mention of riots on the part of some of the native Indians against the Brits and I thought it added some great tension to the story. I need to go back now and find the first book in this series to see what I missed out on!
This book rates a 4/5.
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