White Horses

By Joan Wolf

Book Overview

White Horses by Joan Wolf released on Jul 25, 2004 is available now for purchase.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0778320979
• ISBN13: 9780778320975
• Release Date: July 2004
• Publisher: Mira Books
• Length: 384 Pages
• Weight: 0.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 4.2" x 6.6"

Customer Reviews

A Regency Historical with a new plot

This book was republished in the UK in 2006 by Harlequin/M & B under the title A Dangerous Masquerade. That is the version that I'm reviewing. A note on the copyright page says that the original title was White Horses. It's a new plot. It is. I hadn't thought that there would be such a thing in Regency Historicals as a new plot, but it genuinely has situations that I've never before encountered in a Regency. Nobody goes to London at all. It starts in Brussels in March 1813. Back cover: "Two people meet for the first time at the Hotel Royale in Brussels. Masquerading as lovers, they must embark on a dangerous plan to smuggle gold through Napoleonic France in order to fund the advancing British army... Gabrielle Rochon [sic, but it's Robichon in the book itself] has no loyalty to the emperor who destroyed her family's way of life. Independent and headstrong, she pledges the help the British army . . . " etc. But -- and here things to away from the cliches -- Gabrielle is the widowed and efficient owner of a circus she inherited from her father. She genuinely mourned her husband Andre, but is going on with her life. The book follows the circus and the gold across France as Gabrielle pretends to be married to a new ringmaster, an Englishman named . . . back to the book cover "Colonel Leo Branford" Inside the book, his family name is Leo Standish; he's the earl of Branford. Until the last chapter an epilogue, his title doesn't affect the action one way or the other. There are Gabrielle's younger brothers, both equestrians but also more than that; there's the circus equivalent of office politics; the French army is suspicious. It's a very, very, good book. I classify it in the "hidden treasures" category, because I had never heard of it before I ordered it.

Joan Wolf Can't Miss

OK, so it's not great literature, but I enjoyed every page of White Horses. I am a picky Romance reader and detest unrealistic, fantastical, or farsical romance books that are big on action but poor on character development. Joan Wolf is outstanding at developing real character studies. I have read everything she has written and will continue to do so as long as she graces us with future publications. While this book was not her best, it was far better than the last 10 romance novels I've read.

Good, but not the best

Alert: some spoilers ahead. I adore Joan Wolf, just to get my bias out in the open. I will buy anything that she writes, so I ran out to buy my copy of this book the day it was released. I read it in one night and am now almost through it a second time. I like this book, but it isn't my favorite. I'm happy she is back in the Regency era, and I thought the plot concept was extremely original - hero and heroine smuggling gold via a circus across France to bolster Wellington in Spain. However, I was just not completely entranced with the hero and heroine. They are definitely real people with real faults and I liked that. I think that I am used to reading Joan Wolf when she writes in the first person. In the third person, I feel I still don't really get the feel of what the hero is experiencing, because Ms. Wolf is used to writing from the heroine's perspective. Yet, when she writes in the third person, it's almost as if she has to remind herself not to give away too much of what the heroine is thinking because it isn't a first person book. Some comic or potential plot points were not as well drawn as I would have liked either, for instance, when the hero has to perform in the circus which he has been resisting for the first 50% of the book, it's given 1/2 a page description. Despite its faults, this book is still better than many, many other books out there. I still adore Joan Wolf, this book will be on my keeper shelf, and I will eagerly buy her next book.

rousing Regency romantic suspense

In 1813, Earl Colonel Leo Standish is assigned to escort a Rothschild purchased gold shipment from Brussels to Portugal, needed since the Peninsular merchants refuse paper money as remittance for goods and services. Leo is to masquerade as the husband of Gabrielle Robiscon, part owner with her two younger brothers, of Cirque Equestre, a traveling horse troupe. Gabrielle has agreed to deliver the gold out of love for her recently deceased father, a royalist. Leo and Gabrielle meet and he behaves like a pompous aristocrat though he "obeys" her orders to better fit in with the traveling show. As the French seek to steal the gold, Leo is forced to perform as the ringmaster so that he does not stick out anymore than he already does. Sharing a moving boudoir platonically and great danger at all times, Leo begins to admire and respect his "wife", who teaches him life's lesson that love is everything. Regency romantic suspense fans will enjoy this rousing tale of love between an arrogant lord and a horse trainer-performer amidst the danger of Napoleon's forces seeking to find and kill them. Though the choice between lifestyles by the lead couple seems too easily resolved, the changes in Leo are believable and deftly handled. The audience will agree with his estrange mother "God bless Gabrielle" as she makes the action-packed tale unique, refreshing and exciting. Harriet Klausner