Madeline lost her father over a year ago by freak accident. She blames the doctors and believes that all of them are monsters and butchers. When she hurts her arm during a hunt, her friend leaves her no choice but to be attended to by a doctor. The problem is that this is the same doctor that watched her father bleed out. She can never betray her father's memory by being friendly to him, even though she is attracted to him.
Devlin is the second son of an earl, so he has decided to follow God's calling and become a physician. Circumstances change and he is now the earl but hasn't abandoned his calling. He is attracted to Madeline, but knows that she's upset with him over the death of her father. She doesn't have all the facts about his death but hopes that his behavior to her will overcome her anger towards him.
There's a lot to this story. You get a glimpse of the inside of the insane asylums and doctoring methods of the period. The subplots involving Madeline's mother and the escaped woman from the asylum are interesting as well. The plot was easy to read and flowed well. I wasn't sure what the point was between Part 1 and Part 2; it could have just been the next chapter and still been fine, but whatever.
Madeline irritated me most of the book, but she grew on me some toward the end. This book reminded me of an old gothic romance novel. If you've never read one of those, they usually have a woman in flowing skirt running away from a castle. The women in these books are known for not making the best decisions and missing the obvious. Madeline was a lot like that!
There are two more novels in the series that follow Devlin's two sisters. Chameleon is book 2 and it follows Victoria. Mystery of the Heart, book 3, which just came out in January, follows Mercy. I placed both of them on my watch list and hope they drop in price soon! Good Book!
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