Read recently for AAR book discussion. Love the prose but she didn't just tell him the truth about her situation for far too long. (She's worried her greedy relatives will harm whoever she marries to get control of her inheritance. Wouldn't marry because she didn't want to endanger his life.) TSTL? ( )

This book was my first by Goodman and I was rather please with how well she writes. AIEN is one of the Compass Club series which all take place simultaneously so can be read in any order. But I thought she was rather 'wordy'. The four books in the series feature four heros whose nicknames are North, South, East, and West. This is East's story.

The rumors are flying that Lady Sopia Colley and the Marquess of Eastlyn are engaged. When he arrives to straighten out the mess, he proposes to Sophie but she turns him down flat. There is a bit of a contrived mystery that was mildly interesting but the best part was seeing East and Sophie interact. The sensual descriptions reminded me a little of Judith Ivory and the dialogue was superb with some nice steamy love scenes. But I found myself bored with the mystery again and felt the whole thing could have been shortened up a bit. But still an enjoyable read. (Grade: B-) ( )