Authors: Brenda Joyce
ISBN-13: 9780380775736, ISBN-10: 0380775735
Format: Mass Market Paperback
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Date Published: March 1995
Edition: Reprint
Brenda Joyce is the bestselling, award-winning author of Promise of the Rose,Scandalous Love and The Fires of Paradise. All nine of her historical romances have been highly acclaimed, and four of them, including the first three novels in the "Bragg" saga Innpocent Fire, Firestorm, and Violet Fire have won six awards from Romantic Times and Affaire de Coeur. She has also won three industry awards for her trendsetting promotional bookmarks from Affaire de Coeur. Brenda Joyce is currently working on her next novel.
The author of After Innocence creates a smoldering, if uneven, novel with all the pomp, pageantry and quite a few of the personages of the Elizabethan era. Heading home to Ireland from the Norman convent where she has spent six years, Katherine FitzGerald is abducted on the high seas by notorious pirate Liam O'Neill, bastard son of a barbaric clan chieftain. From her kidnapper Katherine learns that her father is languishing in London under house arrest, deposed by his cousin FitzMaurice. If the pirate's report is true, Katherine's fortune and any hopes for a fitting marriage are lost, leaving her the pirate's prize. Given the stakes, she demands proof of the story in exchange for her pliancy. The pair's covert journey to London is interrupted when they are captured and brought before a furious Queen Elizabeth. Lord Leicester and William Cecil urge the queen to keep Katherine under close watch as a Lady in Waiting-an uncomfortable situation as the vain and petulant queen brooks no rivals for her favorites' affections, especially Liam's. If Joyce abuses the game motif (in part no doubt to push a Game contest aimed at retailers and distributors), this is nonetheless a lusty narrative that will appeal to her fans. (Mar.)