Equally engaging is Ally Grayson, the heroine of Shannon Drake's winning historical romance, Beguiled. When Ally is kidnapped by a handsome highwayman on the way to a party, she spars with him long enough to make him laugh, and then he lets her go on to the party, where Ally unbeknownst to her is about to learn the identity of her fiancÅ½. She's been promised to Mark since they were both babies, the result of a secret and powerful vow that must be kept. But now Ally, a writer with dreams of making her own way in the world, can't stop thinking about the dashing highwayman. How can she marry someone else? Meanwhile, a series of grim murders puts Ally, her highwayman and her fiancÅ½, who is in service to the queen, in grave danger. Beguiled features the delights of the form witty dialogue, a pair of lovers with intelligence and sex appeal along with mystery and murder.
Barbara Samuel won a 2006 RITA award for her novel Lady Luck's Map of Vegas.