This book starts out wonderfully, a woman, stumbling about in a snow storm, seemingly lost. She no sooner collapses, ready to give up, when she is plucked from the teeth of inclement weather and possible death by a knight in shining armour. Her mysterious man drops her like a homeless kitten at the vicar’s, and then goes on his way.

The Vicar and his wife take this nameless woman in. She has a note in her pocket signed 'Beth', so that is what they call her. Beth settles into life at the vicarage and the small village. Six months later, and she still has no inkling who she is, but her thoughts are filled of the hero who rescued her, Jonathan Foxe-Garway, Earl of Portbury, who after his rescue, left the very next day to serve in the Horse Guards in Spain. Six months of hearing of what an honorable man he is, his devotion to duty and bravery on the battlefield, has only managed to stoke Beth's dreamy heroic imaginings of her rescuer.

On her way back from running errands in the village, Beth gets caught in a storm, turns her ankle, and who should appear? Her white knight, Jonathan, even more handsome and dashing than her vague remembrances. Imagine her disappointment when she realizes Jonathan has no recollections of her.

Jonathan may not remember, but he is affected by their meeting, Beth begins to fill his thoughts. But Jon is a man damaged from war and plagued by nightmares. How can he ever live a normal life again?

I found myself caught up in this couple's story, the mystery of Beth's appearance in the town. Jon's war experience and the disaster of his first marriage, make him reticent to involve himself with any woman. He soon discovers that Beth is the bedraggled foundling he deposited at the Vicar's door six months ago. Any interest he may be feeling surely cannot move forward. He is an earl and knows nothing of her past.

But the more the couple is thrown together, the more Jon cannot deny the spark between them, however, he makes a rather bloodless marriage proposal. After all, he does not require love or passion, in his world. They do not exist.

Beth for her part, is quite smitten with Jon, her knight, her hero. But she soon sees he is a man, with faults and secrets. As does she.

Their growing friendship and attraction is well done, very real, steeped in secrets, hidden emotions and eventually passion. The mystery of Beth's identity and how she came to be in that town is resolved adequately, and the reason for her aversion to mistletoe. But it is the relationship itself, of these two flawed, secretive people that make this a very satisfying read. Great characters, the secondary ones too, including Jon's interfering mother.

Reviewed by: Karyn