Garden Path (Harlequin Historical, No. 120)

Rating:
Summary: Okay as a diversion, but ultimately flawed
Review: This book centers around the relationship between Thalia Freemont and Capt. Justin Lionheart. Each is a tortured soul - Thalia because of her dissolute brother, Justin because of a scandal back home in Virginia that led to the deaths of his fiancee and friend. They meet in antebellum Charleston and gradually fall in love. The first part of the story is enjoyable, humorous in places and at times touching, but as it gets closer to the end, the author tries too hard to tie up loose ends. The ending is just too implausible. Without giving it away, suffice it to say that the hero's lack of concern over some of the deaths in the book and the sudden decline into madness of the heroine's brother are both jarring flaws to an otherwise entertaining tale.