Mountain Laurel » (Reprint)

As her many fans well know, no one can write a historical romance like Jude Deveraux. Deveraux combines dreamy medieval landscapes with fresh, memorable characters for the epic romances that have become her trademark.

Captain Ring Montgomery was handsome, a skilled rider, a crack shot, popular with the men and their ladies. That was reason enough for a jealous, surly colonel to saddle Montgomery with a most peculiar assignment: to escort an opera singer into the Colorado gold fields.

Ring's plan was to scare the little lady enough so that she'd hightail it for home. After all, a Civil War was brewing! But LaReina, The Singing Duchess — as Maddie Worth called herself on stage — didn't scare easy. And she didn't intend to explain her reasons for coming West to any high and mighty soldier. Captain Montgomery might be smart enough to figure out that she was no European duchess, and gentleman enough not to take advantage of her when he'd had the chance, but he'd have to go on thinking she had some insane desire to sing opera to a bunch of ragtag miners. She didn't dare trust him with the truth....

Publishers Weekly

Maddie Worth, blackmailed into carrying letters between abolitionist spies who hold her sister captive, resents the authoritarian presence of Captain Ring Montgomery, who helps her navigate the gold fields of Colorado. ``Deveraux fans may find the plot a little thin, but will welcome yet another pair of feisty, independent souls whose conversation crackles with electricity,'' said PW. (July)