Engaging the Enemy - Heather Boyd

Engaging the Enemy

By Heather Boyd

  • Release Date: 2012-02-14
  • Genre: Historical Romance
Score: 4
4
From 728 Ratings

Description

Every great family has a few secrets. The wild Randalls of Hampshire excel at them. 

A lady should be the image of elegance and calm, but those words have never applied to Mercy, Duchess of Romsey. A widow and mother, Mercy is lonely and floundering to keep the estate afloat. When she discovers the existence of Leopold Randall, her husband’s estranged cousin, Mercy immediately offers to help him locate his missing siblings if he helps her return the estate to order.

Leopold has returned to Hampshire for only one purpose—to learn the fate of his missing siblings. Unfortunately, the current duchess is clueless and out of her depth. Her struggle tugs at Leopold’s sense of duty and her bold nature tempts him unbearably. When Leopold discovers their lives are forever entwined, he vows to protect Mercy and her innocent son.

Wild Randalls Series 
Book 1: Engaging the Enemy (Leopold and Mercy)
Book 2: Forsaking the Prize (Tobias and Blythe)
Book 3: Guarding the Spoils (Oliver and Elizabeth)
Book 4: Hunting the Hero (Constantine and Rosemary)

Reviews

  • Couldn’t put it down

    5
    By ashleygluth
    Loved it!!!! I didn’t want to put it down for anything.
  • Contrived, with Continuity Issues

    2
    By brite1
    When Boyd wrote this story, she avoided pronouns when referencing her villain, whose gender was unknown. Consequently, when she updated the story, she only used “they” as a singular pronoun in a couple of paragraphs. While I support the use of “they” as a gender neutral substitute for “he” and “she,” not everyone does. Due to this controversy, many consider this usage to be modern and thus, incongruous in a 19th century setting. Even so, there are valid reasons for using “they” as a singular pronoun in historical fiction. To minimize the resulting continuity issues, such usage should be found, as appropriate, throughout the story. In this instance, as Boyd simply wanted the reader to realize that the villain could be either a man or a woman, the extremely limited use of “they” as a singular pronoun was unforgivably incongruous. This is especially so as Boyd had repeatedly made her point prior to such usage. As there are no societal concerns at stake, Boyd should have continued, for another couple of paragraphs, to avoid pronouns when referencing the villain. By doing so, she would have eliminated an incongruous distraction from the story. Additionally, the conception (and resulting parentage) of the child was so jarringly contrived as to be irritating. Furthermore, every time the hero thought of the child as his, I wondered if he’d be so heroic if the child was not.
  • Engaging the Enemy

    5
    By jane2053
    Great read
  • Engaging the Enemy

    4
    By sbsbrinson
    Engaging story and very good characters!
  • Engaging the Enemy

    5
    By Eitel19
    I read this book for the second time. I have been on Ancestry and I know your books are fiction but my ancestors on my mother's side were Randall's starting as far as England goes. I don't think there was any royalty but one was a mayor of Bath.
  • Engaging the Enemy

    5
    By setonalum
    The interaction between the two main characters was intriguing and delightful. Foolish man, he surrendered in the end!! They overcame obstacles, intrigue and found themselves. Good worthwhile read! Cathie mamu_h@ hotmail.com
  • Engaging the Enemy

    5
    By Jennie the Jewel
    This book was intriguing! A good mystery ( with a twist to the solving), a good romantic story, and characters developed through both narratives and other characters produced a well-written and smoothly flowing novel. Worth the time to read!
  • Engaging the Enemy

    1
    By Uncreativr
    Two incorrect uses of apostrophes in as many pages. So discouraging! Does anyone use proofreaders anymore?
  • Punctuation & grammar not strong suits

    2
    By Marina Ariadne
    While the characters were interesting enough, seeing possessives where plurals were called for, and vice versa, put me in editor mode and made reading this for pleasure difficult. Even the main characters were on the flat side, but Mercy’s character was a bit more present. I’d like to know about the other siblings’ fates, but not at the cost of Editor Mode reading. While there were clues and possible red herrings cast about, the foreshadowing was much lighter, and very well done. I had my suspicions as to who the culprit was, and am happy to say that no single one of them was the actual answer.
  • Engaging the enemy

    5
    By Joanie C P
    Fantastic plot!