One of the things I most prize in a historical is that delicious sense of anticipation you get for things being revealed, or figured out - the fun of the eureka moment -and this book so delivered on those moments, over and over.

The hero, one Marquess of Vere, is this sort of Regency James Bond, and he goes around pretending to be an idiot (he has for years - that's his cover! - he's given up everything to play this crazy role in service to the crown). The heroine Ellisande is this woman who's been kept in this kind of Gothic isolation by an evil uncle, and she makes this desperate bid for freedom for herself and her aunt by entrapping Vere in a marriage - she was actually going for his brother, but she'll settle for the idiot, as she just has to get OUT of there.

I loved this thing to pieces - it's the best historical I've read in ages. While I was reading it, I never wanted it to end.