TO CATCH A BRIDE - Anne Gracie
Book 3 in The Devil Riders Series
Berkley Sensation
ISBN: 978-0-425-23022-0
September 2009
Historical Romance

England; Cairo, Egypt; at Sea, and England; 1817 & 1818

As the motherless spare heir of the Earl of Axebridge, Rafe Ramsey suffered a rather neglected boyhood. Now that his father is dead and his older brother, the heir, has been married ten years without producing an offspring, Rafe has finally been awarded a valued place in the family...as a stud to ensure the line of succession. His brother has contracted an engagement for Rafe with Lady Lavinia Fettiplace, an unobjectionable choice to Rafe until he hears of the bargain she struck with his brother...a bargain he wants no part of. So, instead of attending the engagement party, Rafe takes ship for Egypt to find and bring home the lost granddaughter of Lady Cleeve, a friend of his late, beloved grandmother. Word reached Lady Cleeve that her son, Sir Henry Cleeve, and granddaughter, Alicia, had survived the plague in India that took the younger Lady Cleeve. She has a sketch of the two alive and in Egypt six years ago when Alicia was thirteen, and though her son has since been reported dead, her granddaughter might still be alive.

After her father's death, Ayisha hid from the slavers; she was able to escape them and has spent the last six years on the streets dressed as a boy and helping a kind woman named Laila. Laila has a large maternal heart, but was divorced for being barren and sent back to her nasty brother. She does what she can for the children of the streets. She lets Ayisha and ten-year-old Ali, another orphan, sleep in their courtyard, and she feeds them in exchange for their help gathering herbs and firewood and selling her pies. They are saving up to escape to Alexandria and a new life. But now Ali tells Ayisha about an Englishman showing her picture around. Someone might see it and realize that she is female! Ali is the only person who knows she's not a boy. He makes up his mind to steal the picture, but gets caught.

By using Ali as bait, Rafe lures Alicia Cleeve into his web. She is definitely Sir Henry's daughter; what does she mean that she is Ayisha, that Alicia is dead? Through enticement and not a little coercion, Rafe gets the girl's consent to accompany him to her grandmother in England. The trip is a harrowing one with pirates and sickness, and a growing attachment between Rafe and Ayisha, who proves to be brave and steadfast.

The above just scratches the surface of a many-faceted plot that gradually unfolds. It's a hard choice to make between turning the pages quickly to find out what happens next, and savoring each page to get the full flavor of the characters and how they react to the many conflicts they face.

Rafe is one of four ex soldiers known as the Devil Riders who must re-adjust to civilian life. None of them has it easy. THE STOLEN PRINCESS and HIS CAPTIVE LADY told the stories, respectively, of former Captain Gabriel Renfrew and Harry Morant, who is Gabe's half brother as the earl's illegitimate son. I loved both books and TO CATCH A BRIDE as well. One of the difficulties of reviewing a favorite author is running out of superlatives. An Anne Gracie novel is guaranteed to have heart and soul, passion, action, and sprinkles of humor and fun. One choice bit in TO CATCH A BRIDE is the Cairo street people marveling at the Englishman's being named after that great Egyptian, King Ramses. There is much in TO CATCH A BRIDE to tug at heartstrings, but much also to elicit a happy smile.

I'm greatly looking forward to the next Devil Rider's tale in which we'll meet the lady to capture Luke Ripton. In the meantime, treat yourself to some super reads from a most talented writer.

Jane Bowers